High-Voltage p-GaN HEMTs With OFF-State Blocking Capability After Gate Breakdown

In this letter, we report high-performance p-GaN HEMTs on Si with robust gate operation. For the first time, the preserved OFF-state drain blocking capability has been demonstrated in p-GaN HEMTs after forward gate breakdown. Benefitting from the reduced metal/p-GaN contact region, the gate breakdown was limited to take place only at the metal/p-GaN junction, with the p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN junction intact. The device shows state-of-the-art characteristics with a large threshold voltage of 1.75 V at ID of 100 μA/mm (2.3 V by linear extrapolation), a high maximum drain current of 610 mA/mm at VGS of 8 V, a low specific ONresistance of 1.8 mQ · cm
²
, and a high breakdown voltage of 1100 V defined at ID of 1 μA/mm with grounded substrate.