Impact of induced lattice defects on performance degradation of AlGaAs/GaAs p-HEMTs

Abstract Irradiation damage and its recovery behavior resulting from thermal annealing in AlGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs, subjected to 1-MeV electrons, 1-MeV fast neutrons and 220-MeV carbon, are studied. The drain current and effective mobility decrease after irradiation, while the threshold voltage increases in positive direction. The decrease of the mobility is thought to be due to the scattering of channel electrons with the induced lattice defects and also to the decrease of the electron density in the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) region.