JOURNAL OF SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, VOL.19, NO.

2, APRIL, 2019 ISSN(Print) 1598-1657

https://doi.org/10.5573/JSTS.2019.19.2.214 ISSN(Online) 2233-4866

Proton-irradiation Effects on Charge Trapping-related

Instability of Normally-off AlGaN/GaN Recessed
MISHFETs
Dongmin Keum and Hyungtak Kim

Abstract—We investigated proton-irradiation effects I. INTRODUCTION

on the charge trapping-related instability of
normally-off AlGaN/GaN recessed MISHFETs. The
reduction of drain current (ID) by 57.3 % and the
shift of threshold voltage (Vth) by 1.5 V were induced
by 5 MeV proton irradiation with a total dose of
5ⅹ1014 cm-2. Short-term DC voltage stress tests were
carried out before and after irradiation in order to
investigate how temporary instability caused by the
charge trapping could be affected by the proton
irradiation. The increase in the interface trap density
was probed by capture emission time (CET) map and
conductance method, whereas the breakdown voltage
was increased after proton irradiation. TCAD
simulation using Silvaco Atlas showed the reduction
of lateral electric field of gate edge at drain side after
proton irradiation as well as the increase of lateral
electric field in the access region where charge
trapping mostly occurs. Radiation effect can worsen
the device instability by increasing interface traps and
electric field in the access region.
Index Terms—Gallium nitride(GaN), proton
irradiation, charge trapping, instability, MISHFET,
Normally-off
Manuscript received Aug. 26, 2018; accepted Jan. 15, 2019
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hongik University,
Mapo-gu, Seoul, 04066, Korea
E-mail : hkim@hongik.ac.kr
Harsh environment electronics play an important role
in resource exploration and space mission. For example,
electronic components equipped with radiation-tolerant
technology are essential in space environment where
strong cosmic-radiation is present. GaN-based
electronics have been intensively developed by taking
advantage of large breakdown voltage and high
saturation velocity [1, 2]. In addition, GaN-based
transistors have demonstrated robust operation in high
temperature and radiation-abundant environment [3-5].
In space, it is important to secure radiation-hardened
characteristics of semiconductor components mounted on
space electronic systems because there are abundant
cosmic rays and solar particles including highly energetic
protons. Protons with energies ranging from hundreds of
keV to thousands of MeV exist along the low earth orbit,
where most of satellites and spacecraft are allocated [6].
The effects of proton irradiation on GaN-based
transistors have been widely reported [7-9]. The main
degradation mechanism in GaN-based transistors induced
by proton irradiation is strongly related to the defect
centers. Protons knock out atoms thereby creating
vacancies (Ga and N) and interstitials which act as defect
centers. These defect centers cause the reduction of
mobility in two-dimensional electron gas (2-DEG)
channel by increasing scattering of carriers due to
coulombic interaction. They also reduce the sheet carrier
density in 2-DEG channel by trapping carriers [10, 11].
The reliability against the radiation effects should be
addressed for GaN devices to be deployed in space.
JOURNAL OF SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, VOL.19, NO.2, APRIL, 2019
Fig. 1. Cross-sectional view of normally-off AlGaN/GaN
recessed MISHFETs fabricated on GaN-on-Si substrate.
Among various issues in device reliability, GaN HEMTs
have been reported to suffer from temporary instability,
so called the current slump, when high electric field were
applied between gate and drain [12, 13]. In this work, we
carried out 5 MeV proton irradiation along with electrical
stress tests to investigate the radiation effects on the
electrically-induced degradation of normally-off
AlGaN/GaN recessed MISHFETs.
II. DEVICE FABRICATION AND EXPERIMENT
A cross-sectional view of AlGaN/GaN recessed
MISHFETs fabricated in this work is shown in Fig. 1.
The epitaxial structure consists of a 4.6 μm GaN buffer
layer on (111) Si substrate, a 517 nm i-GaN layer, a 24
nm AlGaN barrier, a 4 nm GaN capping layer, and a 10
nm in-situ SiNX layer. The gate-to-drain distance, gate
length, and gate-to-source distance are 15, 2, and 3 μm,
respectively, and the gate width is 100 μm. For the
source and drain contacts formation, a recessed ohmic
contact scheme was employed to reduce the contact
resistance. A Ti/Al/Mo/Au (= 20/120/25/50 nm) metal
stack was evaporated and alloyed at 830 oC for 30 s. Gate
channel-recess process was performed following mesa
isolation by a low-damage, Cl2/BCl3-based inductively
coupled plasma (ICP) reactive ion etching. The AlGaN
barrier was completely etched away for the normally-off
operation. A 20 nm SiNX film was deposited by ICP
chemical vapor deposition and annealed at 500 oC for 10
mins in N2 ambient to stabilize the quality of an insulator.
The following patterning process defined gate regions
and a Ni/Au (=20/250 nm) metal stack was evaporated.
215
(a)
(b)
Fig. 2. (a) The output, (b) transfer characteristics of normally-
off AlGaN/GaN recessed MISHFETs irradiated with 5-MeV
protons. VG = 8 ~ 0 (-1 V step) in (a) and VD = 10 V in (b).
Post-metallization annealing was also performed at
400 oC for 10 mins in N2 ambient to improve the
interface property.
Proton irradiation was performed with the energy of 5
MeV by MC-50 cyclotron at Korea Institute of
Radiological and Medical Sciences. High total fluence of
5 ´ 1014 cm-2 was chosen to ensure the device degradation.
The samples under test were electrically floated. DC
current-voltage characteristics were measured by using
Agilent 4155A semiconductor parameter analyzer. High
voltage stress was performed using Keithley 2410 and
2651A high voltage/current sources.
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 2 shows the output and transfer characteristics of
AlGaN/GaN recessed MISHFETs irradiated with 5-MeV
protons. The Vth was shifted by 1.5 V and the ID was
216 DONGMIN KEUM et al : PROTON-IRRADIATION EFFECTS ON CHARGE TRAPPING-RELATED INSTABILITY OF …

Fig. 3. The normalized output characteristics before and after (a)

off-state stress tests. VG = 6 V.

reduced by 57.3 % after irradiation. The change of gate

leakage currents was negligible. Displacement damage
has been reported to be the primary mechanism of
proton-induced degradation. As incident particles pass
through the devices, they can displace the host atoms
from the lattice and create defects or traps in the
irradiated material. When the carriers in the channel
become trapped in these defects of traps, they can’t
contribute to the conduction of current flow. Therefore,
the deterioration of device parameters is triggered [14-
17].
Short-term stress tests in which the devices were
stressed at off-state were conducted before and after
proton irradiation to investigate the radiation effects on
the trapping effects. Stress conditions are the drain
voltage (VD) = 400 V and the gate voltage (VG) = 0 V.
The devices were stressed for 5 mins at room
temperature.
Fig. 3 shows the output characteristics normalized by
the maximum current before and after short-term stress
tests with proton irradiation. The stressed devices
exhibited more pronounced reduction of ID caused by
charge trapping during short-term stress. This instability
was reversible and fully recovered after 1-day ambient
storage at room temperature.
When the devices are biased at high VD, electrons in
the 2-DEG channel become “hot” and can be trapped to
the surface states in the access region (gate-to-drain) or
buffer traps near the 2-DEG channel. These trapped
electrons can reduce the ID by depleting the 2-DEG
channel [18, 19]. After proton irradiation, the charge-
trapping by short-term stress was aggravated as
(b)
Fig. 4. CET maps in normally-off AlGaN/GaN recessed
MISHFETs (a) before, (b) after 5-MeV proton irradiation.
compared to non-irradiated devices. It suggests that the
devices became more susceptible to hot electron-induced
trapping during the stress tests after proton irradiation.
Proton irradiation can induce significant damage in the
AlGaN/GaN heterostructure and exacerbate the trapping
phenomenon. In order to investigate the change in the
interface states before and after proton irradiation, CET
map [20] and conductance method [21] were carried out.
CET map, which is a useful technique to analyze overall
trap behavior through the gate region, was extracted by
the repetition of stress and recovery scheme on the gate.
The 5 V of VG was used to induce bias stress instability
and trap concentration (Nit) was extracted by the
following equation.
ò0ò d DVth
N it = (1)
q td
JOURNAL OF SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, VOL.19, NO.2, APRIL, 2019
Fig. 5. Interface trap density (Dit) extracted using conductance
method in normally-off AlGaN/GaN recessed MISHFETs
before and after 5-MeV proton irradiation.
where ò 0 and ò d are dielectric constants of air and
insulator, td is the thickness of insulator. The darker
square block after proton irradiation in Fig. 4 indicates
that the density of traps which have the same capture and
emission time was increased by irradiation damage. The
interface trap density (Dit) was extracted by conductance
method with frequency dependent C-V characteristics
measured at the frequency range from 1 kHz to 1 MHz.
The Dit was increased from 8 ´ 1012 to 1.9 ´ 1013 cm-2 × V-1
at EC – Et = 0.44 eV before and after proton irradiation.
Since the deterioration of the interface beneath the gate
region was detected by CET map and conductance
method, one can assume that the interface in the access
region can be also degraded. SiNX gate insulator exists as
a passivation layer in the access region. Therefore, the
increase of interface states in the access region can
adversely affect the trapping effects observed previously.
Unlike aforementioned degradation characteristics, the
off-state breakdown voltage of normally-off AlGaN/GaN
recessed MISHFETs was improved after 5-MeV proton
irradiation, as shown in Fig. 6(a). The irradiated devices
exhibited the increase of the breakdown voltage from
530 to 670 V. The improvement of breakdown voltage in
AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs
after proton irradiation was previously reported to be
attributed to the reduction of peak electric field at gate
edge [22, 23]. TCAD simulation using Silvaco Atlas was
performed to investigate the electric field distribution in
normally-off AlGaN/GaN recessed MISHFETs. Fig. 6(b)
exhibited the simulation results employing negatively
charged traps like Ref [22] at VD = 600 V and VG = 0 V.
The peak electric field of gate edge at drain side was
217
(a)
(b)
Fig. 6. (a) The off-state breakdown characteristics measured
from AlGaN/GaN MISHFET, (b) the electric field distribution
obtained from TCAD simulation.
reduced by 40 %, therefore the off-state breakdown
voltage could be improved. The lateral field across the
access region was increased as opposed to the field at a
gate edge. In short-term stress tests, proton-irradiated
devices exhibited more degradation by the same
electrical stress than non-irradiated ones did. The
increased instability caused by the trapping effects during
the short-term stress can be attributed to the increase of
trap density and lateral field between the access region
after proton-irradiation.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The charge trapping-related instability of normally-off
AlGaN/GaN recessed MISHFETs was investigated
before and after proton irradiation. The short-term
stressed devices showed the temporary reduction of ID
due to charge trapping. The ID reduction induced by
stress tests was increased after proton irradiation under
218 DONGMIN KEUM et al : PROTON-IRRADIATION EFFECTS ON CHARGE TRAPPING-RELATED INSTABILITY OF …
the same stress condition. CET map and conductance
method revealed that the interface states were increased
by irradiation-induced damage. TCAD simulation
showed the increase of electric field in the access region.
Interface traps and electric field increased by the
radiation effect will produce more charge trapping-
related instability.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by Korea Electric Power
Corporation. (Grant number:R18XA02). This work was
also supported by the National Research Foundation of
Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea
government(MSIT) (No. 2016R1A1B4010474).
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