Characterization of Interface Defects With Distributed Activation Energies in GaN-Based MIS-HEMTs

Charge trapping is one of the main reliability issues for GaN-based MIS-high-electron-mobility-transistor technologies. In this paper, we focus on the defects located at or close to the interface with the dielectric, which are responsible for the threshold voltage instability at positive gate bias conditions. We present a methodology to analyze the experimental data based on the nonradiative multiphonon model for charge trapping. In particular, we show how to extract the density of interface traps as a function of their activation energy from stress and recovery experiments performed at various temperatures. Our approach is applied to two GaN/AlGaN/SiN samples with different trapping properties, at temperatures ranging from -190 °C to 200 °C. We evaluate their response to forward bias stress and finally, we extract the activation energy distribution for electron capture and emission over a continuous energy range.