Theoretical study of RF-breakdown in bulk GaN and GaN MESFETs

Author

Farahmand, Maziar ; Brennan, Kevin F. ; Gebara, Edward ; Heo, Deukhyoun ; Suh, Young ; Laskar, Joy

Author_Institution

Movaz Networks, Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

48

Issue

9

fYear

2001

fDate

9/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1844

Lastpage

1849

Abstract

RF-breakdown was studied in bulk GaN and in GaN MESFETs using a full band Monte Carlo simulator. It was found that in bulk materials, increasing the frequency of an applied RF field would result in a lower overall impact ionization rate and consequently lead to higher breakdown fields. It was also found that the RF-breakdown voltage of devices increases with increasing frequency of the applied large signal RF excitation. The frequency dependence of RF-breakdown and the difference between RF and dc-breakdown is explained based on the time response of the particle energy to the change in the applied RF excitation

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Monte Carlo methods; Schottky gate field effect transistors; electric breakdown; gallium compounds; impact ionisation; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor device models; wide band gap semiconductors; GaN; GaN MESFET; GaN bulk material; RF breakdown; frequency dependence; full-band Monte Carlo simulation; impact ionization; large-signal model; particle energy time response; Electric breakdown; Frequency dependence; Gallium nitride; Impact ionization; MESFETs; Monte Carlo methods; RF signals; Radio frequency; Time factors; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.944168

Filename

944168