Han Gao: Study of Radiation Tolerance of GaN-based Devices

There is increasing interest in the radiation resistance of wide-bandgap semiconductor devices, both for power transistors and RF applications. Ga-based devices are especially interesting because they have shown high resistance to many different types of radiation and to many different doses. In general, the magnitude of the damage, as evidenced by the drain-to-source leakage depends on the linear energy transfer (LET) and drain-source voltage (𝑉_𝐷𝑆). In this project we are studying the effects of radiation on GaN-based devices, both experimentally and theoretically, to improve the understanding of the operation of such devices in different radiation environments.