Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Behavior of p-GaN HEMTs

This paper shows the electrostatic discharge (ESD) behavior of p-GaN HEMTs. Based on transmission line pulse (TLP) testing, the ESD characteristics (stressed: drain versus source, drain versus gate, gate versus source, drain to substrate) are comprehensively evaluated, and we found the following results: (1) the gate of p-GaN HEMTs is most prone to failure in ESD events due to the typical metal/p-GaN gate structure, and the failure voltage for human body model (HBM) cannot meet the 2 kV industry standard. (2) compared to drain versus source with gate grounded testing, the p-GaN HEMTs with gate floating are less prone to catastrophic degradation/failure because the current path formation induced by the high dv/dt voltage during ESD events. (3) the triggering voltage to failure for drain versus gate testing is close to drain versus source with gate grounded condition. Such an evaluation can provide valuable reference to improve the p-GaN HEMTs reliability.