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Gate Current Modeling for Insulating Gate III-N Heterostructure Field-Effect Transistors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2011

Frederick W. Clarke ,
Fat Duen Ho ,
M. Asif Khan ,
Grigory Simin ,
J. Yang ,
Remis Gaska ,
Michael S. Shur ,
Jianyu Deng  and
S. Karmalkar
Frederick W. Clarke
Affiliation:
U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center, Huntsville, AL.
Fat Duen Ho
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alabama in Huntsville
M. Asif Khan
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Carolina
Grigory Simin
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Carolina
J. Yang
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Carolina
Remis Gaska
Affiliation:
Sensor Electronic Technology Inc., Columbia, SC 29209
Michael S. Shur
Affiliation:
Broadband Center and ECSE Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
Jianyu Deng
Affiliation:
Sensor Electronic Technology Inc., Columbia, SC 29209
S. Karmalkar
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India
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Abstract

Gate current plays an important role in determining the characteristics and limiting performance of GaN-based field effect transistors. In GaN-based HFETs, the gate current limits the gate voltage swing and, hence, the maximum device current. Since the electron transport across the wide band gap barrier layer involves trapping, under certain bias conditions, the gate current leads to the threshold voltage shifts and causes reliability problems. Under reverse bias, the gate leakage in GaN-based HFET dominates the minimum (pinch-off) drain current. Insulating gate HFETs (i.e. Metal Oxide Heterostructure Field Effect Transistors – MOSHFETs) have the gate leakage currents 4 – 6 orders of magnitude lower than HFETs, even at elevated temperatures up to 300 °C. In this paper, we report on the gate current characteristics in these devices at room and elevated temperatures. We propose a semi-empirical model for the current-voltage characteristics in these devices, which is in good agreement with experimental data. Our data also show that both tunneling and temperature activation are important factors in MOSHFETs. These results are important for possible applications of GaN MOSHFETs in high power amplifiers and power switches as well as in non-volatile memory devices and integrated circuits that will operate in a much wider temperature range than conventional silicon and GaAs devices.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 743: Symposium L – GaN and Related Alloys , 2002 , L9.10
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

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References

REFERENCES

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