Transient simulation of AlGaN/GaN HEMT including trapping and thermal effects

In order to investigate the current collapse of AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) due to trapping effects, the two-dimensional (2-D) transient simulations were carried out and analyzed in this paper, taking into account the coupling effect of traps and thermal effect. Both the gate-lag transient current and pulsed I-V curves were reproduced by the simulation. In addition, the results show that bulk acceptor traps can influence the gate-lag transient characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs besides surface traps. Furthermore, thermal effect can accelerate the emission of captured electrons for traps. Pulse transient simulation is helpful in analyzing the mechanism of dynamic current collapse, and the work in this paper will benefit the model development and reliability study of GaN-based devices.