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Phys. Status Solidi C 13, No. 5–6, 350–353 (2016) / DOI 10.1002/pssc.201510155

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current topics in solid state physics
Analysis of breakdown characteristics
in source field-plate AlGaN/GaN
HEMTs
Hiraku Onodera, Hideyuki Hanawa, and Kazushige Horio*

Faculty of Systems Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, 307 Fukasaku, Minuma-ku, Saitama 337-8570, Japan

Received 29 August 2015, accepted 10 March 2016

Published online 24 March 2016

Keywords GaN HEMT, breakdown voltage, field plate, two-dimensional analysis

*
Corresponding author: e-mail horio@sic.shibaura-it.ac.jp

Two-dimensional analysis of off-state breakdown charac-
teristics of source field-plate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs is per-
formed by considering a deep donor and a deep acceptor
in a buffer layer. It is shown that the introduction of field
plate is effective in improving the breakdown voltage,
but it can decrease with the field-plate length, and hence
its optimum length should exist. It is also shown that the
breakdown voltage of the source field-plate structure is a
little lower than that of the gate field-plate structure when
the field-plate length is short, because the electric field at
the drain edge of the gate becomes higher.

© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

1 Introduction Recently, AlGaN/GaN HEMTs are 2 Physical models Figure1 shows device structures
receiving great attention because of their applications to analyzed here. Part (a) shows a source field-plate structure,
high-frequency power devices and high-power switching
devices [1, 2]. It is well known that the introduction of
field plate (like Fig. 1) enhances the power performance of
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs [3-5]. This is because the introduc-
tion of field plate reduces the current collapse [6-8], and
increases the off-state breakdown voltage [9-11]. Usually,
the breakdown voltage increases with increasing the field-
plate length [9], because the electric field at the drain edge
of the gate decreases. Recently, it is also shown that the in-
troduction of high-k passivation layer could increase the
breakdown voltage of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs [12], because (a)
the electric field at the drain edge of the gate is reduced.
About the breakdown characteristics of field-plate struc-
tures, the gate-field structure has mainly been studied, and
few or no breakdown characteristics of source field-plate
structure have been reported.
In this work, we have made two-dimensional analysis
of source field-plate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with a short gate
length (0.3 μm) and a relatively short gate-to-drain dis-
tance (1.5 μm), and found that the breakdown voltage can
decrease with the field-plate length and its optimum value
exists. We also compare the breakdown voltages between (b)
source and gate field-plate structures. Figure 1 Device structures analyzed in this study. (a) Source
field-plate structure, (b) gate field-plate structure.

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Phys. Status Solidi C 13, No. 5–6 (2016) 351

and part (b) shows a gate field-plate structure. The gate

length LG is 0.3 μm, and the gate-to-drain distance LGD is
set to 1.5 μm. The field-plate length LFP is varied between
0 and 1 μm, but typically set to 1 μm. The thickness of SiN
passivation layer d is 0.1 μm. In a buffer layer, we consider
a deep donor and a deep acceptor [13, 14]. The deep accep-
tor’s energy level is set 0.6 eV above the top of valence
band. The deep donor’s energy level is typically set to
0.5 eV below the bottom of conduction band [11]. As val-
ues of the deep-acceptor density NDA, we consider a case
with high NDA of 1017 cm-3. To mitigate the short-channel
effects, some studies indicate that an acceptor density in a
buffer layer should be rather high [15, 16]. In a Fe or
C-doped semi-insulating GaN buffer layer, the deep accep-
tor density in the buffer should be very high.
Basic equations to be solved are Poisson’s equation in- (a)
cluding ionized deep-level terms, continuity equations for
electrons and holes including a carrier generation rate by
impact ionization and carrier loss rates via the deep levels
[11, 17]. These are expressed as follows:
1. Poisson’s equation
∇ • (ε∇ψ ) = −q ( p − n + N Di + N DD
+ −
− N DA ) (1)
2. Continuity equations for electrons and holes
∇ • J n = −qG + q ( RDD + RDA ) (2)

∇ • J p = qG − q( RDD + RDA ) (3)

+ +
where NDD and NDA are the ionized deep-donor and deep-
acceptor densities, respectively. RDD and RDA represent
carrier recombination rates via the deep donors and the
deep acceptors, respectively. G is the carrier generation
rate due to impact ionization, and is given by
G = (α n | J n | +α p | J p |) / q (4)
where αn and αp are ionization rates for electrons and
holes, respectively, and expressed as
α n = An exp(− Bn / | E |) (5)
α p = Ap exp(− B p / | E |) (6)
where E is the electric field. An, Bn, Ap, and Bp are deduced
from [18], as in [11].
3 Calculated results and discussion Figure 2
shows calculated drain current ID – drain voltage VD curves
and gate current IG–VD curves of source field-plate
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs when the gate voltage VG is − 8 V,
which corresponds to an off state. The parameter is the
field-plate length LFP. It is seen that for all cases, an in-
crease in the gate current corresponds well to a sudden in-
crease in the drain current, that is, breakdown. The gate
current is almost composed of hole current, and hence in
this case the breakdown occurs due to impact ionization of
carriers. From Fig. 2, we see that by introducing a field
plate (LFP > 0), the breakdown voltage becomes higher.
(b)
Figure 2 Calculated (a) ID–VD curves and (b) IG–VD curves of
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs, where LGD = 1.5 μm and NDA = 1017 cm-3.
VG = − 8 V.
This is because the electric field at the drain edge of the
gate is reduced by introducing a field plate. However,
when LFP becomes long, the breakdown voltage seems to
decrease. We will discuss below why this happens.
Figure 3 shows electric field profiles along the
AlGaN/GaN heterojunction interface. Figure 3(a) shows
the case without a field plate (LFP = 0), and Fig. 3(b) shows
the case of LFP = 1 μm. Without a field plate, the increase
in VD is entirely applied along the drain edge of the gate,
leading to the breakdown around VD = 53 V. On the other
hand, with a field plate (LFP = 1 μm), the electric field at
the drain edge of the gate is weakened, and it is not so in-
fluenced by increasing VD. However, the electric field at
the field-plate edge increases with increasing VD. And, in
this case where LGD = 1.5 μm, the distance between the
field-plate edge and the drain becomes very short (0.5 μm),
and hence the electric field in this region becomes very
high, leading to

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 pss c
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352 H. Onodera et al.: Breakdown characteristics in source field-plate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs
(a)
(b)
Figure 3 Comparison of electric field profiles along the hetero-
junction interface. NDA = 1017 cm-3 and VG = − 8 V. (a) Without
field plate (LFP = 0), (b) with field plate (LFP = 1 μm).
the breakdown around VD = 260 V. This phenomenon that
the off-state breakdown voltage becomes small with in-
creasing the field plate length is also experimentally re-
ported recently in the gate field-plate structure [19].
Figure 4 shows a comparison of electric field profiles
along the AlGaN/GaN heterojunction interface for differ-
ent LFP. Here, LGD = 1.5 μm and VD = 260 V. For shorter
LFP, the electric field at the drain edge of the gate is higher
(but not so high to reach breakdown), and the electric field
between the field-plate edge and the drain becomes weaker
because the distance between the field-plate edge and the
drain is longer, and hence the breakdown voltage should be
higher. Therefore, the breakdown voltage decreases when
the field-plate length LFP becomes long.
© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Figure 4 Electric field profiles along the heterojunction interface
with different values of LFP. LGD = 1.5 μm and NDA = 1017 cm-3.
VG = − 8 V and VD = 260 V.
Figure 5 Off-state breakdown voltage Vbr as a function of field-
plate length LFP for the two field-plate structures. LGD = 1.5 μm.
VG = − 8 V.
Figure 5 shows a comparison of breakdown voltage as
a function of the field-plate length LFP between the source
and gate field-plate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. It is seen that the
breakdown voltage for the source field-plate structure is
lower in the region where LFP is short. This is due to the
higher electric field at the drain edge of the gate for this
structure, because in this structure the field-plate voltage is
fixed to 0 V and the gate voltage is − 8 V whereas in the
gate field-plate structure the field-plate voltage and the
gate voltage are the same (− 8 V). Finally, from Fig. 5, it
should be mentioned that there is an optimum length of LFP
to achieve a high breakdown voltage both in the source and
gate field-plate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.
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Phys. Status Solidi C 13, No. 5–6 (2016) 353

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