RF Performance of Proton-Irradiated AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

Author

Jin Chen ; En Xia Zhang ; Cher Xuan Zhang ; McCurdy, Michael W. ; Fleetwood, D.M. ; Schrimpf, R.D. ; Kaun, Stephen W. ; Kyle, Erin C. H. ; Speck, James S.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN, USA

Volume

61

Issue

6

fYear

2014

fDate

Dec. 2014

Firstpage

2959

Lastpage

2964

Abstract

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) irradiated with 1.8-MeV protons show more relative degradation in RF power/current gain, cutoff frequency f_T, and maximum oscillation frequency f_max than DC transconductance. These result from radiation-induced increases in fast bulk and surface trap densities, as well as increasing impedance mismatch at high frequencies with increasing proton fluence. NH₃-rich MBE devices show less degradation in DC transconductance, but more degradation in RF gain than Ga-rich devices.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; S-parameters; aluminium compounds; gallium compounds; high electron mobility transistors; molecular beam epitaxial growth; nitrogen compounds; radiation hardening (electronics); wide band gap semiconductors; AlGaN-GaN; AlGaN-GaN high electron mobility transistors; DC transconductance; HEMT; NH3-rich MBE devices; NH₃; RF gain; RF power-current gain; cutoff frequency; electron volt energy 1.8 MeV; fast bulk; impedance mismatch; maximum oscillation frequency; proton fluence; radiation-induced increases; surface trap densities; Aluminum gallium nitride; Degradation; Gallium nitride; HEMTs; MODFETs; Protons; Radiation effects; Radio frequency; AlGaN/GaN; HEMT; RF; S-parameters; degradation; proton;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.2014.2362872

Filename

6949163