Investigation of proton irradiated dual field plate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs: TCAD based assessment

In the present work, a comparative study of virtually fabricated Dual Field Plate (DFP) AlGaN/GaN HEMT and conventional HEMT with proton irradiation at different energy have been presented. The optimized DFP AlGaN/GaN HEMT has been virtually fabricated using Silvaco Victory Process Tool. Results show that the inclusion of the DFP causes less impact of proton-irradiation on the electrical characteristics of the device as compared to conventional HEMT. A right shift in the threshold voltage with negligible variation in peak transconductance has been observed. Degradation of 14.3% and 4% in IDSS at 1.8 MeV and 3 MeV of energy respectively are observed when DFP HEMT is irradiated with a fluence of 1 × 1015 p/cm2. The cut-off frequency, breakdown voltage, and parasitic capacitances are also studied at different fluence and energy values. Presented results show that the DFP AlGaN/GaN HEMT is more radiation hardened in nature which makes it an optimal choice for RF circuit design for space application.