Influence of Thermal and Fast Neutron Irradiation on dc Electrical Performances of AlGaN/GaN Transistors
The influence of thermal neutron irradiation and fast neutron irradiation on the electrical properties of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs is investigated. An increase in the drain current and a decrease in the access resistances are observed when devices are irradiated with a thermalized neutrons fluence of 4.3 × 1010 neutrons.cm-2 while no evolution is observed with the same fluence of fast neutrons. However, the same phenomenon is observed when the fast neutron fluence is higher (1.8 × 1012 neutrons.cm-2). AlGaN/GaN heterojunctions are analyzed by gamma spectroscopy after thermalized or fast neutron irradiations to understand the physical mechanisms induced by irradiations. In fact, we have shown that the improvement of electrical properties of devices after thermal neutrons irradiation is linked to a Ga-Ge transmutation effect. Moreover, the evolution of the drain current and access resistance when the AlGaN/GaN heterojunctions are irradiated by fast neutrons can be induced by N vacancies creation and/or a change of the strain state of the layers and/or Ga-Ge transmutation effect.
Influence of heavy ion irradiation on DC and gate-lag performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs
AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were irradiated by 256 MeV 127I ions with a fluence up to 1×1010 ions/cm2 at the HI-13 heavy ion accelerator of the China Institute of Atomic Energy. Both the drain current Id and the gate current Ig increased in off-state during irradiation. Post-irradiation measurement results show that the device output, transfer, and gate characteristics changed significantly. The saturation drain current, reverse gate leakage current, and the gate-lag all increased dramatically. By photo emission microscopy, electroluminescence hot spots were found in the gate area. All of the parameters were retested after one day and after one week, and no obvious annealing effect was observed under a temperature of 300 K. Further analysis demonstrates that swift heavy ions produced latent tracks along the ion trajectories through the hetero-junction. Radiation-induced defects in the latent tracks decreased the charges in the two-dimensional electron gas and reduced the carrier mobility, degrading device performance.
Traceability strategy for gear-pitch-measuring instruments: development and calibration of a multiball artifact
There is a strong demand to ensure the traceability of gear-measuring instruments (GMIs). We propose a multiball artifact (MBA) for the evaluation of pitch-measuring accuracy. The aim of the MBA is to transfer the minimum uncertainty from a calibrated value at the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ) to a measured value of GMIs at a shop floor. The MBA is composed of equally spaced high-accuracy balls around an axis. The pitch-measuring accuracy of GMIs is evaluated by measuring the angular pitch deviation of the balls instead of the angular pitch deviation of a gear. We calibrated the angular pitch deviation using a coordinate measuring instrument (CMM) at the NMIJ and adapting a multiple-orientation technique. We proposed a calibration strategy of the angular pitch deviation. The calibration value of the pitch deviation for the MBA at the NMIJ was obtained with a measurement uncertainty (U95) of 0.2 µm. We evaluated the pitch-measuring accuracy of a GMI using the calibrated MBA. Each value of U95 for the cumulative and single pitch deviations for the left and right flanks was less than or equal to 0.5 µm. The small uncertainty was transferred from the NMIJ to the GMI.