2 MeV ion irradiation effects on AlGaN/GaN HFET devices

G. Sonia^a,b, E. Richter^a, F. Brunner^a, A. Denker^c, R. Lossy^a, M. Mai^a, F. Lenk^a, J. Bundesmann^c, G. Pensl^d, J. Schmidt^a, U. Zeimer^a, L. Wang^a, K. Baskar^b, M. Weyers^a, J. Würfl^a, G. Tränkle^a

^a Ferdinand-Braun-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Straße 4, 12489 Berlin, Germany
^b Crystal Growth Centre, Anna University, Chennai 600 025, India
^c Ionenstrahllabor, Hahn-Meitner-Institut, Glienicker Strasse 100, 14109 Berlin, Germany
^d Inst. fuer Angewandte Physik, Univ. Erlangen-Nuernberg, Staudtstrasse 7, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

Published in:
Solid-State Electron., vol. 52, no. 7, pp. 1011-1017 (2008).
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Abstract:
AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistors (HFETs) were irradiated with 2 MeV protons, carbon, oxygen, iron and krypton ions with fluences ranging from 1 x 10⁹ cm^-2 to 1 x 10¹³ cm^-2. DC, pulsed I-V characteristics, loadpull and S-parameters of the AlGaN HFET devices were measured before and after irradiation. In parallel, a thick GaN reference layer was also irradiated with the same ions and was characterized by X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, Hall measurements before and after irradiation. Small changes in the device performance were observed after irradiation with carbon and oxygen at a fluence of 5 x 10¹⁰ cm^-2. Remarkable changes in device characteristics were seen at a fluence of 1 x 10¹² cm^-2 for carbon, oxygen, iron and krypton irradiation. Similarly, remarkable changes were also observed in the GaN layer for irradiations with fluence of 1 x 10¹² cm^-2. The results found on devices and on the GaN layer were compared and correlated.

Keywords:
GaN-FET, Irradiation damage, Radiation hardness, Point defects

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