Transient Current and Transient Capacitance Measurements of Defects in AlGaAs Hemts

Abstract

The defects present in AlGaAs high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices subjected to accelerated lifetime tests have been studied by transient current, and when possible, by transient capacitance techniques. By measuring transient source-drain currents following the application of a voltage pulse to the gate it is possible to perform deep level transient spectros-copy (DLTS) experiments on HEMT devices which are too small for the conventional capacitance DLTS. The capacitance and current spectra for both stressed and unstressed HEMTs contain the AlGaAs DX defect. The current DLTS spectra for stressed devices contain an additional feature which is not found in capacitance DLTS measurements on the stressed HEMTs. This additional current DLTS feature is anomalous in that the transient has a sign which is opposite to that expected for a majority carrier trap. The absence of the new defect in the capacitance DLTS suggests that the defect is located in the channel between the gate and either the source or the drain. The current DLTS line shape of the stressed induced defect depends upon the polarity and size of the source-drain voltage.