Performance of the AlGaN/GaN HEMT with Sunken Source Connected Field Plate under High Voltage Reverse Bias Step Stress

The manuscript investigates the DC performance of conventional HEMT and Sunken Source Connected Field Plate (SSC-FP) HEMT reliability under reverse bias step stress. To assess the electrical performance of the device at the gate terminal is subjected to a high reverse bias step stress up to – 40 V with an increase of – 5 V step. A higher degree of ON–state resistance (RON) degradation is observed in the conventional HEMT than in the SSC-FP HEMT device. Post-stress drain to source current (Ids) degradation is ~11% and ~6% in non-FP and with SSC-FP devices respectively. In conventional devices when gate voltage (VGS) is up to -20V, the device leakage current is recoverable but after that, the gate current increases exponentially and becomes noisy. In SSC-FP devices, this behavior is shown after gate voltage -30V.