About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2027 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Radiation Effects in Solid-State Materials: An SMD Symposium Honoring William J Weber
|
| Presentation Title |
First-Principles-Informed Device Modeling of
Proton-Induced Displacement Damage in GaN Devices |
| Author(s) |
Xinyuan Xu, Jianan Song, Alexander Hauck, Rongming Chu, Miaomiao Jin |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Xinyuan Xu |
| Abstract Scope |
Gallium nitride (GaN) power devices are promising for space and nuclear applications because of their wide bandgap and high radiation tolerance. However, displacement damage induced by energetic particles can introduce electrically active defects that degrade device operation and reliability. Here, 2-MeV proton irradiation effects on GaN junction field-effect transistors are investigated using an atomistically informed device engineering framework integrating first-principles calculations with Technology Computer-Aided Design simulations. Increasing irradiation fluence progressively reduces the drain current by 50–70% and continuously shifts the threshold gate voltage toward more negative values. Above a critical fluence of 10<sup>13</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup>, the device loses gate control and can no longer be fully turned off under strongly negative bias. Spatially resolved analyses further show that defects in the buffer region beneath the channel significantly contribute to overall degradation. These results link atomistic defect properties to device-level response and provide insights for optimizing radiation-tolerant GaN devices. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Modeling and Simulation, Electronic Materials, Nuclear Materials |