@article {48, title = {Evidence of Hot-Electron Effects during Hard Switching of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices}, volume = {PP}, year = {2017}, month = {08/2017}, pages = {1-6}, abstract = {This paper reports on the impact of soft- and hard-switching conditions on the dynamic ON-resistance of AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors. For this study, we used a special double pulse setup, which controls the overlapping of the drain and gate waveforms (thus inducing soft and hard switching), while measuring the corresponding impact on the ON-resistance, drain current, and electroluminescence (EL). The results demonstrate that the analyzed devices do not suffer from dynamic RON increase when they are submitted to soft switching up to VDS= 600 V. On the contrary, hard-switching conditions lead to a measurable increase in the dynamic ON-resistance (dynamic-RON). The increase in dynamic RON induced by hard switching is ascribed to hot-electrons effects: during each switching event, the electrons in the channel are accelerated by the high electric field and subsequently trapped in the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure or at the surface. This hypothesis is supported by the following results: 1) the increase in RON is correlated with the EL signal measured under hard-switching conditions and 2) the impact of hard switching on dynamic RON becomes weaker at high-temperature levels, as the average energy of hot electrons decreases due to the increase scattering with the lattice.}, doi = {10.1109/TED.2017.2728785}, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318872297_Evidence_of_Hot-Electron_Effects_during_Hard_Switching_of_AlGaNGaN_HEMTs}, author = {Rossetto, I and Meneghini, M and Tajalli, A and Dalcanale, S and Santi, Carlo and Moens, Peter and Banerjee, Abhishek and Zanoni, Enrico and Meneghesso, Gaudenzio} }