Abstract—In this work, we present the substrate biasenhanced trap effects on time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) in GaN metal–insulator–semiconductor highelectron mobility transistors (MIS-HEMTs) by experiment.Under different substrate biases, the shape parameter βand scale factor η of the Weibull distribution are extractedfrom the experimental data. A monotonical decrease in βfrom intrinsic breakdown to extrinsic breakdown relating tothe hole-emission from the acceptor-like buffer traps withincreased negative substrate biases has been observed,while η is increased at large positive substrate biases. Thisunexpected increase in η suggests that the donor-like buffertraps play an important role with a longer lifetime. The trapmechanisms, relating to percolation path establishment,are analyzed based on progressive breakdown (PBD). Thecapacitance–voltage characteristics are measured duringeach stress cycle confirming the hole fluence and electroninjection in the gate-stack layer with different trap distributions under various substrate biases. Finally, 2-D devicesimulations are carried out to probe for physical insight intothe traps on TDDB failure mechanisms.Index Terms—C–V measurement, device simulation,GaN metal–insulator–semiconductor high electron mobility transistor (MIS-HEMT), substrate bias, time-dependentdielectric breakdown (TDDB), trap mechanism.