Multiscale electro-thermal modeling of AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistors

Abstract

Understanding the magnitude of the temperature in AlGaN/GaN heterostructure fi eld e ffect transistors(HFETs) is a critical aspect of understanding their reliability and providing proper thermal management. At present, most models used to determine the temperature rise in these devices are based on continuum based heat conduction. However, in such devices, the heat generation region can be on the order of or smaller than the phonon mean free path of the heat carriers, and thus, such models may under predict the temperature. The aim of this work is towards building a multiscale thermal model that will allow for the prediction of heat transport from ballistic-diffusive phonon transport near the heat generation region and diffusive transport outside of this zone. First, a study was performed to determine the appropriate numerical solution to the phonon Boltzmann transport equation followed by its integration into a multiscale thermal scheme. The model, which utilizes a Discrete Ordinates Solver, was developed for both gray and non-gray phonon transport. The scheme was applied to the solution of speci fic test problems and then finally to the electrothermal modeling of AlGaN/GaN HFETs under various electrical bias conditions.