Transient characteristics of GaN-based heterostructure field-effect transistors

DC current-switching and power-switching transients of various GaN-based FET structures are investigated. Two different characteristics are compared, namely, thermal and electronic transients. While the thermal transients are mainly reflected in changes in channel carrier mobility, the electronic transients are dominated by charge instabilities caused by the polar nature of the material. The discussion of the electronic transients focuses, therefore, on instabilities caused by polarization-induced image charges. Three structures are discussed, which are: 1) a conventional AlGaN/GaN heterostructure FET; 2) an InGaN-channel FET; and 3) an AlGaN/GaN double-barrier structure. In structures 2) and 3), field-induced image charges are substituted by doping impurities, eliminating this source of related instability. This is indeed observed. Index Terms--GaN, heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFETs), switching experiments, transient analysis.