State of the Art 2D and 3D Process and Device Simulation of GaN-Based Devices

Introduction

Silicon has long been the semiconductor of choice for high-voltage power electronics applications. However, wide-bandgap semiconductors such as SiC and GaN have begun to attract attention because they are projected to have much better performance than silicon. In comparison with silicon, wide-bandgap semiconductors offer a lower intrinsic carrier concentration, a higher electric breakdown field, a higher thermal conductivity, and a faster saturated electron drift velocity.

Simulating GaN devices is more challenging compared to Silicon. Indeed very low intrinsic concentration combined with high doping values is usually detrimental to convergence. Since GaN is as wide a band gap material as SiC, we thus use the same simulation approach used for SiC and describe in details here.

In the following paragraphs we will first review the physics involved and needed for accurate simulation of GaN based devices. We will then illustrate our simulation flow with few examples.