MIXED

DESIGN

MIXDES 2013, 20th International Conference "Mixed Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems", June 20-22, 2013, Gdynia, Poland

A Compact Model of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs Power

Transistors Based on a Surface-Potential Approach
Patrick Martin, Luca Lucci
Silicon Components Division
CEA, LETI
MINATEC Campus, 17 rue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
patrick.martin@cea.fr

AbstractIn this paper we present a compact model for

AlxGa1-xN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs)
developed for circuit simulation of power transistors. A physical
approach is followed and drain current and intrinsic node
charges are calculated using the surface-potential formalism. The
HSP model (acronym for HEMT Surface-Potential model)
presented here includes: dependence on the aluminum content of
the energy band-gap and of the spontaneous and piezoelectric
polarizations, incomplete donor activation, temperature
dependence of different parameters and self-heating effect.
Moreover, a physical self-heating model including heat diffusion
from channel to substrates of different thermal conductivities is
implemented. Other effects, like series resistances, velocity
saturation and channel length modulation which are important
when the HEMT transistor works at high voltage and high
current are also incorporated in the model.
Index TermsAlGaN/GaN HEMT; MODFET;
transistor; compact model; surface potential

power

I. INTRODUCTION
The GaN material, because of its excellent intrinsic
properties such as high electron mobility, high sheet carrier
density in excess of 1013 cm-2, high saturation velocity and high
breakdown field, is a serious candidate to replace silicon and
silicon carbide in power electronics. HEMT power transistors
based on the AlGaN/GaN heterojunction have already shown
excellent results and industrialization of these components for
microwave applications is already well established [1]. There is
also a challenging and strong interest for switching applications
e.g. high frequency energy conversion circuits and automotive
and aerospace products [2]. In order to reduce costs, while
retaining
high
performance,
AlGaN/GaN
HEMTs
heterostructures grown on large diameter silicon carbide (100150 mm) or silicon substrate (200 mm) are presently studied
[3].
Given the complexity and cost of technological processes
(use of field plates, difficulty of donor implantation, refractory
nature of wide band gap materials), there is also a strong need
for predictive physics-based SPICE models to simulate the
electro-thermal behavior of these heterostructures and also to
assess the influence of process fluctuations on their electrical
properties.

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II. DESCRIPTION OF THE HSP MODEL

The HSP model was previously described [4-5] and the
flow chart is presented in Fig. 1.

Parameters

Voff

Drain current
(Id)

Polarization effects
(SP, PZ)

Electrostatics
ss, sd,
, sm

Access
resistances

Temperature
modeling

Mobility

Self-heating

2DEG charge (Qi)

Incomplete donor
ioniz.

Velocity Saturation

DIBL Effect

Channel Length
Mod.

Charge
partitioning
(Qs/Qd)
Parasitic cap.

Figure 1. HEMT structure schematic (upper) and HSP model flow (lower).

A. Electrostatics
In order to calculate the sheet charge density ns in the two
dimensional electron gas (2-DEG), the Schrdinger-Poisson
equations are solved using the 2D triangular approximation as
shown by Eqs. 1-4 [6-8]. Symbols used are listed in Table 1.

ns

H AlGaN
qd

 Voff  EF

qN D d d
qV

(d d  di )
2H AlGaN H AlGaN

(1)

Voff

M B  'EC 

(2)

*QTv`B;?i kyRj #v .2T`iK2Mi Q7 JB+`Q2H2+i`QMB+b  *QKTmi2` a+B2M+2- GQ/x lMBp2`bBiv Q7 h2+?MQHQ;v

TABLE I. LIST OF SYMBOLS

Symbol
ns
AlGaN
q
k
T
Vt
EF
B
Ec
ND

dd
di
d
Ds
E0
u1

ns

Definition
Sheet electron density in 2-DEG
Dielectric constant of AlGaN
Elementary charge
Boltzmanns constant
Temperature
Thermal voltage (kT/q)
Fermi level
Schottky gate barrier height
Conduction band discontinuity
Donor concentration in n-AlGaN
Polarisation induced electron density
Thickness of the n-doped AlGaN layer
Thickness of the undoped AlGaN layer
Total AlGaN thickness (dd + di)
Conduction band density of states
Lowest allowed energy level
Triangular well coefficient for E0

DS

kT
ln 1  exp
q

E0

u1 ns

E F  E0

kT q

rL

Units
m-2
C2/J.m
C
J/K
K
V
V
V
V
m-3
m-2
m
m
m
m-2/V
V
V.m4/3

B. Self-heating effect
Two models of the self-heating effect (SHE) are included:
1 A simple model where an empirical thermal resistance
Rth is assumed for the power dissipation Pdiss, which defines the
temperature increase as T= Pdiss Rth.
2 A physical model with heat diffusion from channel
through substrate of thickness tsub and whose backside is held at
constant temperature, T0, acting as a heat sink. Assuming the
following general law for thermal conductivity (KEX=-1.4 for
GaN, -1.5 for SiC and -1.25 for GaAs):

(4)

VG and Voff are gate voltage and offset voltage respectively.

Voff could be either calculated following the approach in e.g.
Ref. [9-10] or introduced as a parameter. The system of Eqs.
1-4 can be solved by iterative numerical methods. However,
such approach is not suitable for circuit simulations as it is too
costly in computational time. Following the work of Cheng and
Wang [7], this system could be solved analytically. In this case
the computation of EF (EF = + ) is achieved in two steps:

N (T ) N  Tref  T Tref  KEX 

'T

2 - Small refinement (), important for medium ns.

Refinement is done several times (5-10) to ensure good
accuracy for medium ns. We have obtained different analytical
expressions than [7] and checked that our expressions are valid
even for very high drain voltage, up to 1 kV.
Knowing the Fermi potential, the surface potential is given
by:

EF  Vch 



where Vch is the channel voltage and varies between VS at

source and VD at drain.
Calculation of drain current
Following the surface-potential (SP) model approach [11],
and including channel-length modulation, drain current is given
by:

I ds

E P LF

gs

 Voff  Vt  ) sm )
rL  G0 ) / Vc





and following the Kirchhoff transformation approach of

Canfield [12] to solve heat diffusion generated under the gate
near the drain in a simple half-cylinder whatever the value of
the KEX exponent, the temperature increase is:

1 - Approximate solution () for two asymptotic cases: (a)

for high ns and (b) for low ns,

)s



with = W/L Cg, Cg = AlGaN / d, = sd ss. ss and sd

are surface potentials calculated at source and drain,
respectively. sm is the SP midpoint: sm = 0.5 (sd + ss). rL
allows for modeling of the channel-length modulation (CLM)
effect. LF is the low field mobility and Vc = Ec L, where Ec is
a critical field for velocity saturation.

(3)

2/3

1 /  1  'L / L 

1 Pdiss

1  1
T P0

T0

T
1 Pdiss
1

T P0



with:

 KEX  1

P0

S N (T0 ) W T0

1

8t 
ln sub
SD L



where W and L are gate width and length. is a correction

factor ( 1) for calculation of the effective channel length
from which heat dissipation occurs [13]. A new channel
temperature is calculated (T=T+T) and all parameters
depending on temperature are updated. A new drain current is
then obtained. This process is repeated iteratively until
convergence of drain current is attained. Less than 10 iterations
are necessary for a temperature increase not exceeding 300 C.
Fig. 2 shows the influence of self-heating on Id(Vd) output
characteristics for a silicon and for a silicon carbide substrate
whose thickness is 500 m and held at 25 C. For calculation,
we use Si=149 W/m/K, SiC=320 W/m/K and =1.

Nj

0.5

III. RESULTS

T=T0=25 C, tsub=500 m

Id/W (A/mm)

0.4

A. Gummel symmetry test (GST)

GST is a standard DC benchmark to qualify a MOSFET
model [16]. It requires that the drain-source current IDS(VDS)
must be strictly an odd function of VDS. Moreover, even order
derivatives of Ids w.r.t. VX must be smooth at VX = 0. Figs. 4-6
show that HSP has no singularity and passes this test.

0.3
No SHE
SiC substrate
Si substrate

0.2

0.1

0.5
0.4

0
0

VG=-3 V
VG=-2 V
VG=-1 V
VG=0 V

10

0.3

Vd (V)

0.2

0.1
Ids

Figure 2. Influence of SHE on output characteristics and of the substrate

material, silicon or silicon carbide (VG=0 V, W=75 m, L=1 m)

C. Incomplete donor ionization

Depending on temperature and activation energy, ionization
of donors is not complete in refractory, wide band-gap
materials such as GaN. For example, in silicon-doped MOCVD
films, Gtz et al. [14] have measured two activation energies:
ED1=12~17 meV and ED2=32~77 meV. Charge neutrality
condition leads to:

i 1

1

g i n T 
exp
N C T 

-0.3
VD=VX, VS=-VX

-0.4
-0.5

-1

-0.5

0
VX (V)

0.5

0.5

Figure 4. GST test for drain current.

N Di

-0.2

'E Di

kT

 NA

(11)

0.6
VG=-3 V
VG=-2 V
VG=-1 V
VG=0 V

0.5

where n(T) is the effective donor concentration at temperature

T, i the index of donor, j the number of donor levels, gi the
degeneracy, NC the density of states in conduction band, ND the
donor concentration, ED the donor activation energy and NA
the concentration of compensating acceptors.

0.4
dIds/dVx

n T 

0
-0.1

0.3

0.2

Furthermore, the activation efficiency is function of

implantation temperature. For example, it has been shown [15]
that only ~ 50 % of donors are active after ion implantation at
room temperature. To model this effect, a parameter called Aeff
is introduced (Aeff 1). Combining these two effects, we solve
the neutrality equation (11) using an iterative method. To be
applicable as a SPICE compact model, we used the bisection
method. As shown in Fig. 3, for an operating temperature
higher than 200 K, less than eight iterations are needed.

0.1

-1

-0.5

0
VX (V)

Figure 5. GST test for first order drain current derivative.

0.5

1E+24

100

0.3

10

0.2
d2Ids/dVx2

1E+23

Number of iterations

Effective donor concentration (m-3)

VG=-3 V
VG=-2 V
VG=-1 V
VG=0 V

0.4

ND1 + ND2

0.1
0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3

Bisection method
1E+22

100

200

300

400 500 600

Temperature (K)

700

800

900

1
1000

-0.4
-0.5

-1

Figure 3. Effective donor concentration vs. temperature and number of

iterations needed to solve the neutrality equation by the bisection
method, ED1=12 meV, ED2=32 meV, ND1=7.4 1023 m-3,
ND2=0.6 1023 m-3, NA=0, Aeff=1.

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-0.5

0
VX (V)

0.5

Figure 6. GST test for second order drain current derivative.

B. Impact of technological variations

As HSP is a physics-based model, it allows for estimation
of the impact of technological variations on electrical
performances known as variability. Fig. 7 shows for example
that increasing the nominal aluminum content of the AlxGa1-xN
layer would increase drain current and that fluctuations of
current would decrease at the same time. Fig. 8 shows that
increasing the thickness of the nominal doped AlGaN layer
would increase the drain current and decrease fluctuations of
current.

approach enabling calculation of drain current and its

fluctuations with AlxGa1-xN material properties, doping,
thicknesses, epitaxial substrate and temperature. A new
approach for modeling the self-heating effect is presented
which allows to estimate heat dissipation through any substrate
material. The model is implemented using Verilog-A and ADS
simulator from Agilent.
REFERENCES
[1]

1.2

16

[2]
1.0
12

Id/Id (%)

0.6

0.4

Idsat/W (A/mm)

0.8
x/x=10%

[3]

[4]
[5]

4
0.2
di=3 nm dd=25 nm VD=20 V VG=1 V
0

[6]

0.0

0.1

0.2
0.3
Nominal Al content (x)

0.4

0.5

[7]

Figure 7. Drain current in saturation and relative current fluctuations

assuming 10 % fluctuations of the xAl content.

[8]
16

1.4

[9]

1.2
1.0
0.8

x=0.15

0.6
x=0.25

0.4

4
x=0.35

Idsat/W (A/mm)

Id/Id (%)

12

0.2

dd/dd=10 % di=3 nm VD=50 V VG=1 V ND=2 1024 m-3

[10]

[11]

[12]

0.0

10

20
30
Nominal dd (nm)

40

50

Figure 8. Drain current in saturation and relative current fluctuations

assuming 10 % fluctuations of the doped AlGaN layer thickness
for three xAl contents: 0.15, 0.25 and 0.35.

[13]

[14]

[15]

IV. CONCLUSION
We have developed a compact model for power HEMTs
using a surface-potential approach. We follow a physical

[16]

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