Electro-Thermo-Mechanical Transient Modeling of Stress Development in AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) (Postprint)

Abstract

In this paper, we present a coupled small-scale electrothermal model for characterizing AlGaN/GaN HEMTs under direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) power conditions for various duty cycles. The calculated electrostatic potential and internal heat generation data are then used in a large-scale mechanics model to determine the development of stress due to the inverse piezoelectric and thermal expansion effects. The electrical characteristics of the modeled device were compared to experimental measurements for validation as well as existing simulation data from literature. The results show that the operating conditions (bias applied and AC duty cycle) strongly impact the temperature within the device and the stress fluctuations during cyclic pulsing conditions. The peak stress from the inverse piezoelectric effect develops rapidly with applied bias and slowly relaxes as the joule heating increases the device temperature during the on state of the pulse leading to cyclic stresses in operation of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2014
Accession Number
ADA614007

Entities

People

  • Donald L. Dorsey
  • Eric R. Heller
  • Jason P. Jones
  • Matthew R Rosenberger
  • Rama Vetury
  • Samuel Graham
  • William P King

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Compound Semiconductors
  • Electric Fields
  • Electrical Properties
  • Electron Mobility
  • Electrons
  • Mechanics
  • Metal-Semiconductor Junctions
  • Piezoelectric Effect
  • Semiconductor Devices
  • Semiconductors
  • Silicon Carbide
  • Stresses
  • Temperature Gradients
  • Two Dimensional
  • Voltage

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Plasma Physics.
  • Semiconductor Device Technology
  • Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Structures.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems