Understanding the Thermal Time Constants of GaN HEMTs through Model Order Reduction Technique

Abstract

This paper described a comparison between a numerical Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and an analytical approach in order to extract the thermal time constants and the thermal resistances of simple but realistic structures. Understanding the complex contribution of multidimensional thermal spreading, the effect of multiple layers, and the correlation with the heat source length is mandatory due to the severe mismatch of thermal expansion in different epitaxial layers and high operating temperatures. This is especially true on GaN HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistor) with the continuous decrease of the gate length and the increase of the power density. Moreover, in this paper, we extracted the time constants with a Model Order Reduction (MOR) technique based on the Ritz vector approach with inputs coming from the FE matrices. It was found that the time constants obtained by an analytical solution and a model order extraction from FEA were exactly the same. This result validated the idea that our MOR technique provides the real time constants and resistances for our device structures and in this case unified the analytical world with the numerical one.