Compact modeling of gate leakage phenomenon in GaN HEMTs

This paper implements a physically derived compact model of current conduction and gate leakage in AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). The drain-source current conduction through the device is described using the surface potential based virtual-source model applicable for scaled gate length devices. The gate leakage model includes contributions from thermal emission (TE), trap-assisted tunneling (TAT), Poole Frenkel (PF) emission, and Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling. The full I-V model is applied to fabricated AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with SiN passivation and excellent agreement of the model against measured data is demonstrated over a broad bias and temperature range from 298 K to 573 K.