Comparative study of drift region designs in RF LDMOSFETs

Systematic investigation of the drift region design of the RF LDMOSFET in terms of breakdown voltage, on-resistance, transconductance, capacitance and hot-carrier effects is presented. The incorporation of a source field plate allows for an increase of drift dose for a given breakdown voltage, which eases the tradeoff between the breakdown voltage and on-resistance, and the breakdown voltage and transconductance. However, the increased dose can significantly degrade hot-carrier reliability. A step-drift has enhanced hot-carrier immunity and lower capacitance, but, at the cost of increased on-state resistance and lower transconductance. Furthermore, a second origin of hot carriers is reported in the step-drift design, which may cause damage in the drift region. A deeper drift region design, which does not require an additional mask in comparison to the step-drift design, is investigated. The proposed approach shares all the advantages provided by the field plate design. Moreover, the lower concentration in the new drift region design leads to enhanced hot-carrier immunity.