Short Term Reliability and Robustness of ultra-thin barrier, 110 nm-gate AlN/GaN HEMTs

TL;DR

This study evaluates the short-term reliability and robustness of 110 nm AlN/GaN HEMTs under various stress conditions, revealing consistent failure modes linked to hot-electron trapping and localized leakage paths.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the failure mechanisms and scaling behavior of ultra-thin AlN/GaN HEMTs under different stress tests.

Findings

Breakdown voltages scale linearly with gate-drain distance

Failure mode involves increased gate leakage and threshold voltage shift

Localized leakage paths detected by electroluminescence imaging

Abstract

Short-term reliability and robustness of 110 nm AlN/GaN HEMTs has been evaluated by means of off-state, semi-on state and on-state step stress tests on devices having different gate-drain distance, LGD. While breakdown voltages and critical voltages scale almost linearly with LGD, failure mode remains almost unchanged in all tested devices, and consists in an increase of gate leakage, accompanied by a positive shift of threshold voltage. In off-state, electroluminescence images detect the presence of localized leakage paths which may act as preferential paths for electron trapping. Degradation does not depend on dissipated power and is preliminary attributed to hot-electron trapping, enhanced by electric fields.