Mechanisms of the Device Property Alteration Generated by the Proton Irradiation in GaN-Based MIS-HEMTs Using Extremely Thin Gate Insulator

• Published in: Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-02, Vol.13 (5), p.898
• Main Authors: Chang, Sung-Jae, Kim, Dong-Seok, Kim, Tae-Woo, Bae, Youngho, Jung, Hyun-Wook, Choi, Il-Gyu, Noh, Youn-Sub, Lee, Sang-Heung, Kim, Seong-Il, Ahn, Ho-Kyun, Kang, Dong-Min, Lim, Jong-Won
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carrier mobility; Chemical vapor deposition; Electric insulators; Electric properties; Electrodes; Energy; Energy transfer; Gallium compounds; Gallium nitrides; GaN; gate insulator; Hafnium oxide; HfO2; High electron mobility transistors; Insulators; Irradiation; Linear energy transfer (LET); Mechanical properties; MIS (semiconductors); MIS-HEMT; Mobility; Nitrides; Organic chemicals; Performance degradation; Point defects; Proton energy; Proton irradiation; Radiation; Radiation damage; Radiation tolerance; Semiconductor devices; Semiconductors; Si3N4; Silicon nitride; Stress measurement; Threshold voltage; total ionizing dose effects; Transconductance; Transistors; Voltage
• ISSN: 2079-4991; 2079-4991
• DOI: 10.3390/nano13050898

Recently, we reported that device performance degradation mechanisms, which are generated by the γ-ray irradiation in GaN-based metal-insulator-semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MIS-HEMTs), use extremely thin gate insulators. When the γ-ray was radiated, the total ionizing dose (TID) effects were generated and the device performance deteriorated. In this work, we investigated the device property alteration and its mechanisms, which were caused by the proton irradiation in GaN-based MIS-HEMTs for the 5 nm-thick Si N and HfO gate insulator. The device property, such as threshold voltage, drain current, and transconductance varied by the proton irradiation. When the 5 nm-thick HfO layer was employed for the gate insulator, the threshold voltage shift was larger than that of the 5 nm-thick Si N gate insulator, despite the HfO gate insulator exhibiting better radiation resistance compared to the Si N gate insulator. On the other hand, the drain current and transconductance degradation were less for the 5 nm-thick HfO gate insulator. Unlike the γ-ray irradiation, our systematic research included pulse-mode stress measurements and carrier mobility extraction and revealed that the TID and displacement damage (DD) effects were simultaneously generated by the proton irradiation in GaN-based MIS-HEMTs. The degree of the device property alteration was determined by the competition or superposition of the TID and DD effects for the threshold voltage shift and drain current and transconductance deterioration, respectively. The device property alteration was diminished due to the reduction of the linear energy transfer with increasing irradiated proton energy. We also studied the frequency performance degradation that corresponded to the irradiated proton energy in GaN-based MIS-HEMTs using an extremely thin gate insulator.