We studied the mechanism of the proton-induced electrical degradation of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) through 5-MeV proton irradiation. First, the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure was exposed to protons with a fluence of 1 × 10¹⁵ p/cm² to investigate the relationship between the radiation-caused damage in the heterostructure and the electrical characteristics of HEMTs. The HEMTs fabricated on a proton-irradiated AlGaN/GaN heterostructure showed slight degradation in dc characteristics and a positive shift in threshold voltage, compared with the HEMTs fabricated on an unirradiated heterostructure. This indicated that the proton radiation-induced defects in the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure were not dominant factors of characteristic degradation. After additional proton irradiation into both devices, more severe degradation in electrical characteristics was confirmed. The HEMTs fabricated on a proton-irradiated heterostructure showed the largest characteristic degradation in this work. It is expected that the secondary particles, attributed from the collision of proton and metal contacts such as ohmic and schottky, can cause the creation of additional defects, leading to significant degradation of device characteristics. In addition, the pre-existing defects in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures created first proton irradiation can also influence the characteristic degradation of devices.

我们研究了通过5 MeV质子辐照质子诱导的AlGaN / GaN高电子迁移率晶体管（HEMT）的电降解机理。首先，将AlGaN / GaN异质结构暴露于1×10 ¹⁵ p / cm ²的通量的质子中研究异质结构中由辐射引起的损伤与HEMT的电学特性之间的关系。与在未经辐照的异质结构上制造的HEMT相比，在质子辐照的AlGaN / GaN异质结构上制造的HEMT显示出dc特性的轻微下降和阈值电压的正向偏移。这表明AlGaN / GaN异质结构中质子辐射引起的缺陷不是特征退化的主要因素。在将质子照射到两个设备中之后，证实了电特性的更严重降低。在质子辐照的异质结构上制造的HEMT在这项工作中表现出最大的特性退化。预计二次粒子 质子与金属接触（例如欧姆和肖特基）的碰撞引起的化学腐蚀可导致产生其他缺陷，从而导致器件特性显着降低。另外，第一次质子辐照产生的AlGaN / GaN异质结构中的预先存在的缺陷也会影响器件的特性退化。