Annihilation of electrical trap effects by irradiating AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with low thermal neutrons radiation fluence

In this paper, we report on an original method, which permits to change the trap effects on the dc electrical performances of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. In fact, electrical traps induced by an OFF-stress state on AlGaN/GaN transistors can be strongly reduced by using low thermalized neutrons radiation fluence. We also highlight that a neutron irradiation induces the creation of electrical traps, which act as acceptor. As a result, the electrical behaviour of devices under OFF-state stress is totally different if the component is irradiated or not before the ageing test because electrical traps induced by OFF-state stress can compensate the electrical traps involved by neutron irradiation. To our knowledge, it is the first time that such observation was made.