Hydrogen-Related Recovery Effect of AlGaN/GaN High-Electron-Mobility Transistors Irradiated by High-Fluence Protons

The related recovery effect of hydrogen on AlGaN/gallium nitride (GaN) high- electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) irradiated by high-fluence protons was investigated in this article. The results show that under the same temperature and time conditions, the recovery effect induced by thermal hydrogen annealing is better than that of ordinary thermal annealing. Compared with the ordinary thermal annealing, the high-fluence proton-irradiated device experienced a 65-mA additional increase in saturation current at the gate-to-source voltage (V-gs) of 0 V, a 0.074-V additional negative shift of the threshold voltage, a more significant increase in reverse gate leakage current and better gate lag after the hydrogen treatment. The defect densities are extracted by the low-frequency noise method. It shows that the trap density decreases from 8.32 x 10(17) to 6.84 x 10(17) cm(-3).eV(-1) after ordinary thermal annealing and then decreases from 6.84 x 10(17) to 3.85 x 10(17) cm(-3).eV(-1) after hydrogen treatment of an irradiated AlGaN/GaN HEMT. The mechanism for the decrease of trap density after the hydrogen treatment could be attributed to the H-passivated defects in the structures of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.

Automated summary

The recovery effect of hydrogen on high-fluence proton-irradiated AlGaN/GaN HEMTs was found to be better than that of ordinary thermal annealing. After hydrogen treatment, the irradiated HEMT device showed improvements in saturation current, threshold voltage, gate leakage current, and gate lag. The trap density in the device decreased after both ordinary thermal annealing and hydrogen treatment, indicating possible H-passivated defects in the structures.