The failure behavior and the corresponding physical mechanism of the AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) under transmission line pulse (TLP) stress were investigated in this paper. The result shows that the output and transfer characteristics of the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs after 90 cycles begin to degrade by comparing with the fresh ones under 40 V TLP voltage, and the gate leakage current of the devices slightly increases. When the TLP voltage of 52 V was applied, a catastrophic failure occurs for the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. Furthermore, the failure of the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs was located, and the micro-morphology of the abnormal spot was observed. The result shows that the gate metal was damaged due to the large TLP stress. The failure mechanism may be mainly attributed to the Joule heat that causes the high lattice temperature of 1160 K as well as the electric field, and it is higher than the melting point of Au (1064 K) in the gate metal (Au/Ti/Mo). The results may be useful in the design and application of electrostatic discharge (ESD) for AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.

中文翻译：

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传输线脉冲应力下 AlGaN/GaN HEMT 的栅极失效行为及机制


本文研究了传输线脉冲（TLP）应力下AlGaN/GaN高电子迁移率晶体管（HEMT）的失效行为和相应的物理机制。结果表明，在40 V TLP电压下，与新鲜的AlGaN/GaN HEMT相比，经过90个循环后，AlGaN/GaN HEMT的输出和传输特性开始下降，并且器件的栅极漏电流略有增加。当施加 52 V 的 TLP 电压时，AlGaN/GaN HEMT 发生灾难性故障。此外，还对AlGaN/GaN HEMTs的失效进行了定位，并观察了异常点的微观形貌。结果表明，由于较大的TLP应力，栅极金属被损坏。失效机理可能主要归因于焦耳热导致1160 K的高晶格温度以及电场，其高于栅极金属（Au/Ti/莫）。研究结果可能有助于 AlGaN/GaN HEMT 静电放电 (ESD) 的设计和应用。