Non thermally-activated transients and buffer traps in GaN transistors with p-type gate: A new method for extracting the activation energy. (November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nardo, A.; Meneghini, M.; Barbato, A.; De Santi, C.; Meneghesso, G.; Zanoni, E.; Sicre, S.; Sayadi, L.; Prechtl, G.; Curatola, G.
• Is Part Of: Microelectronics and reliability. Volume 114(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-11
• Subjects: Electronic apparatus and appliances -- Reliability -- Periodicals; Miniature electronic equipment -- Periodicals; Appareils électroniques -- Fiabilité -- Périodiques; Équipement électronique miniaturisé -- Périodiques; Electronic apparatus and appliances -- Reliability; Miniature electronic equipment; Periodicals; 621.3815
• DOI: 10.1016/j.microrel.2020.113842
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0026-2714

Abstract

Abstract: This paper demonstrates that conventional drain current transient (DCT) measurements fail at identifying the correct activation energy of buffer defects in transistors with p-GaN gate. Based on combined pulsed and transient characterization, we demonstrate that (i) under off-state stress, the analysed devices suffer from moderate dynamic-Ron and from positive shift in the threshold voltage; (ii) the de-trapping kinetics, analysed by DCT, are unexpectedly not thermally-activated; (iii) de-trapping kinetics are significantly accelerated when measured at high gate voltage; (iv) we report a power law correlation between the gate leakage measured during the de-trapping phase and the time constant for recovery. Finally, (v) we propose a new characterization procedure, based on TLM structures, to overcome these issues, thus accurately investigating buffer-related effects.