ON-Resistance Analysis of GaN Reverse-Conducting HEMT With Distributive Built-In SBD
Jin Wei, Li Zhang, Zheyang Zheng, Wenjie Song, Song Yang, Kevin J. Chen
Abstract
Recently, a GaN reverse-conducting high-electron-mobility transistor (RC-HEMT) has been demonstrated. The RC-HEMT features built-in distributive Schottky contacts, which provide a low-loss freewheeling path. The RC-HEMT offers the same functionality as an HEMT/Schottky barrier diode (SBD) pair, but consumes much less chip area, thus its <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> (ON-resistance <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> total device width) is significantly reduced. Theoretically, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of the RC-HEMT can approach that of an HEMT. In practice, due to certain geometry limitations, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of an RC-HEMT lies between an HEMT/SBD pair and a single HEMT. This work investigates the factors that influence <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of the RC-HEMT using both experimental measurements and numerical simulations. It is found that <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of the RC-HEMT is strongly affected by the geometry of the source and channel regions, where HEMT sections and SBD sections are interdigitally distributed. With coarse patterning of these regions, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of the RC-HEMT is close to the HEMT/SBD pair. Through proper geometry scaling, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of RC-HEMT is reduced and approaches that of HEMT.