Avoiding avalanche breakdown in planar GaN Gunn diodes by means of a substrate contact
Abstract Impact ionization originated by the buffer leakage current, together with high electric fields ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>></mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> 3 MV cm −1 ) at the anode corner of the isolating trenches, has been identified as the failure mechanism of shaped planar GaN Gunn diodes when biased above 20 V, so that no evidence of Gunn oscillations in fabricated devices has been observed yet. In order to avoid the avalanche, we propose the addition of a Schottky substrate terminal, which, by means of Monte Carlo simulations, has been confirmed to be able to suppress such not-desired leakage current when applying a negative substrate bias. When the substrate bias is positive, impact ionization is also reduced due to the lower electric field at the hotspot, but a vertical cathode-substrate current degrades the device operation. In order to avoid such current, we propose the use a MIS configuration for the substrate contact, which is the optimal solution.
Authors
- I. Íñiguez-de-la-Torre (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2059-0955)
- J. Mateos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4041-7145)
- Marie Lesecq (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3735-1790)
- B. G. Vasallo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1275-3304)
- Lili Huo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9632-8865)
- Sergio García-Sánchez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8061-4835)
- K. Radhakrishnan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8910-3297)
- Mahmoud Abou Daher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2647-6352)
- R Lingaparthi
- S. Pérez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1494-0795)
- T. González (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3706-3211)
- D. Nethaji
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Nanyang Technological University (SG)
- Universidad de Salamanca (ES)
- Université de Lille (FR)
- Institut d'Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie (FR)
- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (IN)
- Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (FR)
- École Centrale de Lille (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Physics D Applied Physics
- Published
- 2024-09-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/ad809f
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- GaN-based semiconductor devices and materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.31
Funders
- Universidad de Salamanca
- Junta de Castilla y León
- European Regional Development Fund
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación