Investigating single-event effects in recess gate GaN/AlN p-channel HEMTs for radiation-hardened application

Abstract

In this work, the influence of heavy ions on the performance mechanism of recess gate GaN/AlN-based p-channel HEMT has been investigated using extensive TCAD simulation. The effect of the recess gate depth and position along with the technological misalignment issues has also been addressed. Results show that the transient drain current is more sensitive to heavy ions when it is incident in the gate–drain access region. Also, the device exhibited high susceptibility to heavy ions, with increasing energy and recess gate depth. With the increase in linear energy transfer (LET) value, the peak gate and drain current increase linearly. Further to make the device more robust against heavy ions, MIS-type configuration in GaN/AlN architecture is studied with silicon nitride as the dielectric layer. The insulating layer provides an additional degree of protection against the single-event effects caused by heavy ions or other sources of charge injection mechanism.