Electric-Based Thermal Characterization of GaN Technologies Affected by Trapping Effects

This article presents an electric-based methodology for thermal characterization of semiconductor technologies. It is shown that for technologies such as gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors, which exhibit several field induced electron trapping effects, the thermal characterization has to be performed under specific conditions. The electric field is limited to low levels to avoid activation of trap states. At the same time, the dissipated power needs to be high enough to change the operating temperature of the device. The method is demonstrated on a test structure implemented as a GaN resistor with large contact separation. It is used to evaluate the thermal properties of samples with different silicon carbide suppliers and buffer thickness.