
347Trapping and Degradation Mechanisms in GaN-Based HEMTs
more detailed description of the degradation process: according to their conclusions,
the damage generated after stress may be located at the AlGaN surface, or—in any
case—far from the channel.
10.5.1 BreAkdown in gan-heMts
Gallium nitride transistors are expected to play an important role in the next-gener-
ation power converters, thanks to the high expected breakdown voltage, which is a
direct consequence of the high breakdown eld of GaN (>300 V/µm). However, sev-
eral authors (see for instance [21,112,113,118,124]) demonstrated that the breakdown
voltage of GaN-HEMTs can be signica