Investigation of the effect of temperature during off-state degradation of AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors

0026-2714/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. A doi:10.1016/j.microrel.2011.09.018 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (E.A. Douglas). AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors were found to exhibit a negative temperature dependence of the critical voltage (VCRI) for irreversible device degradation to occur during bias-stressing. At elevated temperatures, devices exhibited similar gate leakage currents before and after biasing to VCRI, independent of both stress temperature and critical voltage. Though no crack formation was observed after stress, cross-sectional TEM indicates a breakdown in the oxide interfacial layer due to high reverse gate bias. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.