Non-thermal and non-equilibrium recovery of high-temperature degraded enhancement mode GaN HEMTs

High-temperature storage degrades enhancement-mode gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) by activating electrically active defects and altering the electrostatics of the gate stack. Conventional thermal annealing is largely ineffective for thermal degradation of microelectronic devices. Here, we demonstrate an ultrafast, non-thermal recovery approach based on electron wind force (EWF) that recovers thermal degradation at near-ambient bulk temperatures. Commercial p-GaN gate HEMTs subjected to 310 °C storage for 30 min exhibited reduced drain current, a negative threshold-voltage shift, increased gate leakage, and pronounced changes in trap-resolved capacitance. Applying low duty cycle pulsed current for 1 min at ∼29 °C generated EWF that restored both output and transfer characteristics, indicating reduced trap participation and recovery of the intrinsic gate-stack electrostatics. In contrast, conventional thermal annealing produced only partial recovery and failed to restore the original device characteristics. The correlated improvements across transport, leakage, and capacitance measurements suggest that EWF drives non-equilibrium defect reconfiguration within the channel and interfaces near the p-GaN gate stack. These results establish EWF as a rapid, low-thermal-budget pathway for defect management and in situ rejuvenation of GaN power electronic devices.