High-Field Stress, Low-Frequency Noise, and Long-Term Reliability of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

A small degradation of threshold voltage and a significant reduction in dc and RF transconductance are observed for AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors fabricated via three different process techniques and subjected to high voltage stress in the semi-ON bias condition. Low-frequency noise measurements as a function of temperature show peaks at ~0.2, ~0.5, ~0.7, and/or ~0.8 eV that increase with the magnitude and duration of high-field stress. The dehydrogenation of passivated Fe and O impurity defects and/or N antisite defects leads to increased charge trapping, noise, and transconductance degradation. Density functional theory calculations show that Ga vacancy motion and dehydrogenation of substitutional Fe complexes in the GaN buffer layer also contribute significantly to the poststress degradation of these devices. At higher stress voltages, these defects also likely contribute to device failure.