Received: 3 February 2021 Accepted: 15 February 2021

DOI: 10.1002/jnm.2875

SPECIAL ISSUE PAPER

A scalable electrothermal model using a three-dimensional

thermal analysis model for GaN-on-diamond high-electron-
mobility transistors

Youda Li | Shuman Mao | Yu Fu | Ruiming Xu | Bo Yan |

Yong Zhang | Yuehang Xu

School of Electronic Science and

Engineering, University of Electronic
Science and Technology of China,
Chengdu, China
Correspondence
Yuehang Xu, School of Electronic Science
and Engineering, University of Electronic
Science and Technology of China,
Chengdu, Sichuan 611731 China.
Email: yuehangxu@uestc.edu.cn
Funding information
National Natural Science Foundation of
China, Grant/Award Numbers: 61874020,
61922021
Abstract
A scalable eletrothermal model is necessary for a high-power amplifier design
for accurate accounting of thermal effects. Toward this end, this study presents
a scalable large-signal model of gallium-nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility
transistors (HEMTs) on diamond substrates. First, a three-dimensional
(3D) thermal analysis model was established. Then, a modified eletrothemal
expression was proposed to predict thermal effects including scalability. For
validation, the proposed model was implemented into quasi-physics zone divi-
sion (QPZD) large-signal model. Results show that the proposed model accu-
rately predicts the I–V curves of devices with different gate widths, gate
fingers, and ambient temperatures. Moreover, the results of the model are con-
sistent with on-wafer measurements of 2 × 125, 4 × 125, and 10 × 50 μm of
GaN-on-diamond HEMTs, indicating that the proposed model accurately pre-
dicts the DC–IV curves, scattering parameters, and large-signal performance.
The findings of this study can be useful for designing microwave diamond–
GaN HEMT circuits.

KEYWORDS
ambient temperature, diamond substrate, large-signal model, microwave GaN HEMT, quasi-
physics zone division (QPZD) model, scalable

1 | INTRODUCTION

GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are technologically attractive because they can operate at high power
density and frequency, which has led to their wide use in high-power solid-state microwave amplifiers.1 However, for
the sake of completeness, they should underline that nowadays this technology is attracting some attention also for
high-frequency low-noise applications.2-4 Microwave GaN HEMTs on silicon carbide (SiC) and silicon substrates have
become mature technologies, and commercial foundries now produce devices that operate up to 110 GHz.
Attention has now focused on diamond because it offers extremely high thermal conductivity (2200 W m−1 K−1);
four to five times that of SiC and silicon.5 Designing high-power radio-frequency (RF) amplifier systems requires an
accurate device model for large peripherals to achieve maximum power and efficiency. When operating in a high-
temperature environment, traditional methods of large-signal modeling are not accurate. An accurate description of
thermal effects requires pulse testing devices to extract the corresponding thermal resistance.

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https://doi.org/10.1002/jnm.2875