At-Bias Extraction of Access Parasitic Resistances in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs: Impact on Device Linearity and Channel Electron Velocity

D.W. DiSanto, C. R. Bolognesi

IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices · 2006 · 70 citations · 22 references

Concepts

Abstract

AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistor "hot" parasitic source and drain resistances R <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S,D</sub> are determined under operating biases through wideband S-parameter measurements, without the use of "ColdFET" biasing conditions. Both R <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S</sub> and R <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">D</sub> are found to increase dramatically over ColdFET values, both for biases approaching threshold and for open-channel conditions. Parasitic resistance values have a significant effect on the extracted small-signal equivalent circuit model elements, as well as on the apparent device linearity. The bias dependence of access resistances modifies the understanding of the transistor physical operation: A revised delay time analysis accounting for the bias dependence of parasitic resistances shows that the effective average electron velocity in the AlGaN/GaN two-dimensional electron-gas channel is approximately equal to 1.9 times 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">7</sup> cm/s. This new value of channel velocity is also consistent with the C <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">GS</sub> /g <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MO</sub> ratio obtained when the bias dependence of R <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S</sub> and R <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">D</sub> is accounted for during the extraction of the transistor small-signal equivalent circuit model

References

22