Investigation of anomalous positive bias temperature instability in GaN MIS-HEMTs with PEALD SiNx gate dielectrics

In this work, a “turn-around” behavior in the threshold voltage (VTH) shift of GaN metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) high electron mobility transistors on Si substrate under positive gate bias stress is observed with increasing temperature, and the physical mechanism is systematically analyzed. At room and low temperatures, the positive VTH shift dominated by the electron trapping and tunneling effects is well known. However, the VTH exhibits an unexpected negative shift at high temperatures, and its underlying mechanism remains unclear. This work attributes the phenomenon to the dissociation of Si–H bonds and the generation of positive charges within the plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition SiNx, confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Meanwhile, a physical model involving hydrogen migration and release is adopted to explain the abnormal negative VTH shift. The activation energy of the negative VTH shift is estimated to be 0.32 eV. The identified mechanism of VTH shift can offer a pathway to improve the reliability of MIS devices.

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Publication Details

Journal
Applied Physics Letters
Published
2025-11-10
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0288670
Primary Topic
GaN-based semiconductor devices and materials
Type
article
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article

Investigation of anomalous positive bias temperature instability in GaN MIS-HEMTs with PEALD SiNx gate dielectrics

Jiejie Zhu, Jiaqi Guo, Sen Huang, Qingyang Dong et al.
Applied Physics Letters
GaN-based semiconductor devices and materials
article

Investigation of anomalous positive bias temperature instability in GaN MIS-HEMTs with PEALD SiNx gate dielectrics

Jiejie Zhu, Jiaqi Guo, Sen Huang, Qingyang Dong, Ruizhe Zhang, Yankui Li, Sheng Zhang, Xinhua Wang, Xinyu Liu, Wei Ke, Xiaoqiang He, Jianchao Wang, Zhaojia Ma, Mengdi Li, Kaiyu Wang
article en

Abstract

In this work, a “turn-around” behavior in the threshold voltage (VTH) shift of GaN metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) high electron mobility transistors on Si substrate under positive gate bias stress is observed with increasing temperature, and the physical mechanism is systematically analyzed. At room and low temperatures, the positive VTH shift dominated by the electron trapping and tunneling effects is well known. However, the VTH exhibits an unexpected negative shift at high temperatures, and its underlying mechanism remains unclear. This work attributes the phenomenon to the dissociation of Si–H bonds and the generation of positive charges within the plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition SiNx, confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Meanwhile, a physical model involving hydrogen migration and release is adopted to explain the abnormal negative VTH shift. The activation energy of the negative VTH shift is estimated to be 0.32 eV. The identified mechanism of VTH shift can offer a pathway to improve the reliability of MIS devices.

Applied Physics LettersVol. 127(19)
Xidian University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Institute of Microelectronics (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 78%
GaN-based semiconductor devices and materials
DOISourceOpenAlex
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