Effect of proton irradiation dose on InAlN/GaN metal-oxide semiconductor high electron mobility transistors with Al2O3 gate oxide

The effects of proton irradiation on the dc performance of InAlN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MOSHEMTs) with Al2O3 as the gate oxide were investigated. The InAlN/GaN MOSHEMTs were irradiated with doses ranging from 1 × 1013 to 1 × 1015 cm−2 at a fixed energy of 5 MeV. There was minimal damage induced in the two dimensional electron gas at the lowest irradiation dose with no measurable increase in sheet resistance, whereas a 9.7% increase of the sheet resistance was observed at the highest irradiation dose. By sharp contrast, all irradiation doses created more severe degradation in the Ohmic metal contacts, with increases of specific contact resistance from 54% to 114% over the range of doses investigated. These resulted in source-drain current–voltage decreases ranging from 96 to 242 mA/mm over this dose range. The trap density determined from tempera…