ESD HBM Discharge Model in RF GaN-on-Si (MIS)HEMTs

We report on our extensive experimental and simulation study to understand ESD failure mechanisms in RF GaN-on-Si (MIS)HEMTs. As opposed to ESD clamp transistors in LV CMOS technologies, a mis-correlation between standarddefined HBM ESD robustness and commonly used TLP failure current was observed in GaN (MIS)HEMTs. Using transient HBM IV characteristics, a novel discharge model is proposed to explain the transient discharge mechanism. The TCAD and SPICE simulations confirmed that the observed mis-correlation between TLP and HBM is attributed to 2DEG channel resistance modulation in response to HBM ESD transient voltage waveforms.

Automated summary

In this study, an extensive experimental and simulation investigation was conducted to understand the ESD failure mechanisms in RF GaN-on-Si (MIS)HEMTs. It was observed that there is a mis-correlation between the standard-defined HBM ESD robustness and commonly used TLP failure current in GaN (MIS)HEMTs. A novel discharge model was proposed to explain the transient discharge mechanism, which was confirmed by TCAD and SPICE simulations to be attributed to 2DEG channel resistance modulation in response to HBM ESD transient voltage waveforms.