Impact of rounded electrode corners on breakdown characteristics of AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors. (18th April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yamazaki, Taisei; Asubar, Joel T.; Tokuda, Hirokuni; Kuzuhara, Masaaki
• Is Part Of: Applied physics express. Volume 11:Number 5(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-04-18
• Subjects: Physics -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals; 621.05
• DOI: 10.7567/APEX.11.054102
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1882-0778

Abstract

Abstract: We investigated the impact of rounded electrode corners on the breakdown characteristics of AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors. For standard reference devices, catastrophic breakdown occurred predominantly near the sharp electrode corners. By introducing a rounded-electrode architecture, premature breakdown at the corners was mitigated. Moreover, the rate of breakdown voltage ( V BR ) degradation with an increasing gate width ( W G ) was significantly lower for devices with rounded corners. When W G was increased from 100 µm to 10 mm, the V BR of the reference device dropped drastically, from 1, 200 to 300 V, whereas that of the rounded-electrode device only decreased to a respectable value of 730 V.