Influence of Buffer Carbon Doping on Pulse and AC Behavior of Insulated-Gate Field-Plated Power AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

Pulse behavior of insulated-gate double-field-plate power AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with C-doped buffers showing small current-collapse effects and dynamic R DS,on increase can accurately be reproduced by numerical device simulations that assume the CN-CGa autocompensation model as carbon doping mechanism. Current-collapse effects much larger than experimentally observed are instead predicted by simulations if C doping is accounted by dominant acceptor states. This suggests that buffer growth conditions favoring CN-CGa autocompensation can allow for the fabrication of power AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with reduced current-collapse effects. The drain-source capacitance of these devices is found to be a sensitive function of the C doping model, suggesting that its monitoring can be adopted as a fast technique to assess buffer compensation properties. © 1980-2012 IEEE.