Simulation Modeling for Evaluating High-energy Proton Irradiation Effects of Gallium Nitride-based Electronics

Gallium Nitride (GaN)-based electronics have been studied as high-frequency electronics for space applications because of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) with high carrier density and mobility as well as a strong resistance for radiation. The understanding of the space radiation effects on electronics is important to employ GaN-based devices as space electronics because the space radiation, including protons, electrons, and heavy ions, degenerate current characteristics of GaN electronics. In this work, we studied simulation modeling for the proton irradiation effect in GaN devices by using technology computer aided design (TCAD) simulator. Point defects, including Ga and N vacancies created by the radiation damage, were applied in the barrier, channel, and buffer regions to consider the displacement damage. Parameters for contact resistance and schottky tunneling were also optimized to reflect the proton irradiation damage. The simulation results for drain current characteristics before and after the proton irradiation were evaluated by comparing with experiment results. The simulation results showed a similar tendency to the experimental results and reflected the phenomenon in GaN device after the proton irradiation well. The modeling results can contribute to predict space radiation effects in GaN electronics