The impact of buffer thickness upon the transport-limited buffer trapping effects in carbon-doped power GaN-on-Si devices

In this work, we focused on investigating the transport-limited trapping effects in GaN-on-Si buffer layers as well as impact of the thickness of buffer layers (T_Buf) upon such effects. Vertical transport dynamics of charges within the buffer layers and their key energy levels are quantitatively and statistically investigated and analyzed. The results show that an increased T_Buf diminishes both impurity conduction of the defect band formed by carbon doping as well as the injection of electrons from the substrate, greatly diminishing the current collapse and improving the stability of the device. Such enhancement is mainly attributed to the reduced vertical electric field within the thickened epitaxy, which provides an additional pathway to address the current collapse and yields more efficient power GaN-on-Si devices.