Influence of a drain field plate on the forward blocking characteristics of an AIGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor

In this paper, the influence of a drain field plate （FP） on the forward blocking characteristics of an AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor （HEMT） is investigated. The HEMT with only a gate FP is optimized, and breakdown voltage VBR is saturated at 1085 V for gate–drain spacing LGD ≥ 8 μm. On the basis of the HEMT with a gate FP, a drain FP is added with LGD=10 μm. For the length of the drain FP LDF ≤ 2 μm, VBR is almost kept at 1085 V, showing no degradation. When LDF exceeds 2 μm, VBR decreases obviously as LDF increases. Moreover, the larger the LDF, the larger the decrease of VBR. It is concluded that the distance between the gate edge and the drain FP edge should be larger than a certain value to prevent the drain FP from affecting the forward blocking voltage and the value should be equal to the LGD at which VBR begins to saturate in the first structure. The electric field and potential distribution are simulated and analyzed to account for the decrease of VBR.