Heavy ion-induced electrical degradations and mechanisms of high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) were investigated in this article. AlGaN/GaN HEMTs were irradiated by 800-MeV Bi ions with total fluence of 5.23×10105.23\times 10^{{10}} ions/cm2. The results show that the saturation current decreased by 13.1%, the threshold voltage negatively shifted by 0.21 V, the peak transconductance decreased by 26.6%, the reverse gate-leakage current increased much more than 16 times, and forward gate-leakage current increased more than three times. Furthermore, all electrical performances experienced partial recovery after room temperature annealing (RTA) and 175 °C thermal annealing except gate-leakage current. To further explore the mechanism of gate-leakage degradation, AlGaN/GaN heterojunction wafers were exposed to 1400-MeV Ta ions with fluence of 6.86×1076.86\times107 ions/cm2, and characterized by conductive atomic force microscope (CAFM) before and after the irradiation. The results show that the leakage current significantly increased in AlGaN material areas after the irradiation. Comparing the increase in gate leakage of the AlGaN/GaN heterojunction and AlGaN/GaN HEMT induced by heavy ions irradiation, it can be seen that the gate-leakage current of AlGaN/GaN HEMT after heavy irradiation almost entirely was caused by latent tracks. The mechanism for the irreversible increase in gate leakage after heavy ions irradiation could be attributed to the latent tracks along the ion trajectories through the heterojunction.

中文翻译：

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AlGaN/GaN 高电子迁移率晶体管中单粒子损伤引起的栅极漏电机制


本文研究了重离子引起的电退化和高电子迁移率晶体管 (HEMT) 的机制。 AlGaN/GaN HEMT 采用 800 MeV Bi 离子照射，总注量为 5.23×10105.23\times 10^{{10}} ions/cm2。结果表明，饱和电流降低了13.1%，阈值电压负移了0.21 V，峰值跨导降低了26.6%，反向漏电流增加了16倍以上，正向漏电流增加了更多。超过三倍。此外，除栅极漏电流外，所有电气性能在室温退火（RTA）和175°C热退火后均经历了部分恢复。为了进一步探讨栅漏电退化的机制，将AlGaN/GaN异质结晶片暴露于注量为6.86×1076.86×107 ions/cm2的1400-MeV Ta离子中，并在栅漏前后通过导电原子力显微镜（CAFM）进行表征。辐照。结果表明，辐照后AlGaN材料区域的漏电流显着增加。比较重离子辐照引起的AlGaN/GaN异质结和AlGaN/GaN HEMT栅极漏电流的增加可以看出，重离子辐照后AlGaN/GaN HEMT的栅极漏电流几乎全部是由潜迹引起的。重离子辐照后栅极漏电不可逆增加的机制可归因于沿着异质结的离子轨迹的潜在轨迹。