Investigation of buffer traps in an AlGaN/GaN/Si high electron mobility transistor by backgating current deep level transient spectroscopy

in Applied Physics Letters (2003), 82

The influence of a substrate voltage on the dc characteristics of an AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor ~HEMT! on silicon ~111! substrate is profited to investigate traps that are located between ... [more ▼]

The influence of a substrate voltage on the dc characteristics of an AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor ~HEMT! on silicon ~111! substrate is profited to investigate traps that are located between the substrate and the two-dimensional electron gas channel. The transient of the drain current after applying a negative substrate voltage is evaluated in the temperature range from 30 to 100 °C. With this method, known as backgating current deep level transient spectroscopy, majority carrier traps with activation energy of 200 meV as well as minority carrier traps at 370 meV are identified. The experiments are performed on completed HEMTs, allowing the investigation of the influence of device fabrication technology. [less ▲]

Material and Device Issues of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Silicon Substrates

in Proceedings of the MRS Fall Meeting, Boston 2002 (2003)

Results on the preparation and properties of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on silicon substrates are presented and selected issues related to the material structure and device performance devices are discussed ... [more ▼]

Results on the preparation and properties of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on silicon substrates are presented and selected issues related to the material structure and device performance devices are discussed. Virtually crack-free AlGaN/GaN heterostructures (xAlN ≅ 0.25), with low surface roughness (rms of 0.64 nm), ns ≅ 1×1013 cm-2 and μ ≅ 1100 cm2/V s at 300 K, were grown by LP-MOVPE on 2-inch (111)Si substrates. HEMT devices with Lg = 0.3−0.7 μm were prepared by conventional device processing steps. Photoionization spectroscopy measurements have shown that a trap level of 1.85 eV, additional to two levels of 2.9 and 3.2 eV found before on GaN-based HEMTs on sapphire, is present in the structures investigated. Self-heating effects were studied by means of temperature dependent dc measurements. The channel temperature of a HEMT on Si increases with dissipated power much slower than for similar devices on sapphire substrate (e.g. reaches 95 and 320 °C on Si and sapphire, respectively, for 6 W/mm power). Prepared AlGaN/GaN/Si HEMTs exhibit saturation currents up to 0.91 A/mm, a good pinch-off, peak extrinsic transconductances up to 150 mS/mm and static heat dissipation capability up to ~16 W/mm. Unity current gain frequencies fT up to 21 and 32 GHz were obtained on devices with gate length of 0.7 and 0.5 μm, respectively. The saturation current and fT values are comparable to those known for similar devices using sapphire and SiC substrates. Properties of AlGaN/GaN/Si HEMTs investigated show that this technology brings a prospect for commercial application of high power rf devices. [less ▲]

Influence of doping concentration on DC and RF performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on silicon substrate

in Physica Status Solidi A. Applications and Materials Science (2003), (1), 179-182

AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with different carrier supply layers are fabricated on Si substrate, using MOVPE growth technique. The influence of the carrier supply doping concentration on the HEMT properties is ... [more ▼]

AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with different carrier supply layers are fabricated on Si substrate, using MOVPE growth technique. The influence of the carrier supply doping concentration on the HEMT properties is investigated by Hall measurements and by electrical DC and RF characterisation of transistor devices. Hall mobility is found to decrease with increasing sheet concentration, while the gate leakage current increases. The device with the highest carrier supply doping concentration of 1019 cm–3 is provided with a GaN cap layer to reduce gate leakage. The transistors based on modulation doped layer structures show much higher DC performance than the undoped device. Best RF properties are obtained for a doping level of 5 × 1018 cm–3. High frequency measurements exhibit fT and fMAX values of 35 GHz and 37 GHz, respectively, for devices with 300 nm gate length. [less ▲]

Conductivity and Hall effect measurements on intentionally undoped and doped AlGaN/GaN heterostructures before and after passivation,

in Applied Physics Letters (2003), 83((2003)), 5455

Conductivity and Hall effect measurements were performed before and after Si3N4 passivation of intentionally undoped and doped AlGaN/GaN heterostructures on Si and SiC substrates. An increase of the sheet ... [more ▼]

Conductivity and Hall effect measurements were performed before and after Si3N4 passivation of intentionally undoped and doped AlGaN/GaN heterostructures on Si and SiC substrates. An increase of the sheet carrier density ~up to ;30%! and a slight decrease of the electron mobility ~less than 10%! are found in all samples after passivation. The passivation induced sheet carrier density is 1.5– 231012 cm22 in undoped samples and only 0.731012 cm22 in 5–1031018 cm23 doped samples. The decrease of the electron mobility after passivation is slightly lower in highly doped samples. The channel conductivity in both types of unpassivated samples on Si and SiC substrates increases with an increase in doping density. After passivation, a well-resolved increase of channel conductivity is observed in the undoped or lightly doped samples and nearly the same channel conductivity results in the highly doped samples. [less ▲]

Ultrafast and highly sensitive photodetectors fabricated on high-energy nitrogen-implanted GaAs,

in Applied Physics Letters (2003), 83

We have fabricated and tested metal–semiconductor–metal ~MSM! photodetectors based on nitrogen-ion-implanted GaAs. Nitrogen ions with energy of 700 and 880 keV, respectively, were implanted into epitaxial ... [more ▼]

We have fabricated and tested metal–semiconductor–metal ~MSM! photodetectors based on nitrogen-ion-implanted GaAs. Nitrogen ions with energy of 700 and 880 keV, respectively, were implanted into epitaxial GaAs films at an ion concentration of 331012 cm22. Ti/Au MSM photodetectors with 1-um-wide fingers were fabricated on top of the implanted GaAs. In comparison to low-temperature-grown GaAs photodetectors, produced in parallel in identical MSM geometry, the 880 keV N1-implanted photodetectors exhibited almost two orders of magnitude lower dark current ~10 nA at 1 V bias! and the responsivity more than doubled ~.20 mA/W at 20 V bias!. Illumination with 100-fs-wide, 810 nm wavelength laser pulses, generated ;2.5-ps-wide photoresponse signals with amplitudes as high as 2 V. The 2.5 ps relaxation time was the same for both the ion-implanted and low-temperature-grown devices and was limited by the MSM capacitance time constant. [less ▲]

Backgating high-current and breakdown characterisation of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on silicon substrates

in Proceedings of the ESSDERC 2003. Estoril, Portugal (2003)

Backgating effect as well as breakdown and high-current performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on silicon substrates are studied. The material structure of investigated devices differ in the thickness of ... [more ▼]

Backgating effect as well as breakdown and high-current performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on silicon substrates are studied. The material structure of investigated devices differ in the thickness of stressrelaxing intermediate layer sequence (~1 μm and ~2.5 μm thick). It is shown that the transistor backgating effect is reduced for the thicker sequence. Similarly, the reverse gate current is two orders of the magnitude lower and the gate-drain breakdown voltage increases substantially in devices with the thicker sequence. Increase from ~40 V to ~160 V of the HEMT blocking capability measured under electrostatic discharge-like conditions is also observed. [less ▲]

Fabrication and performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on (111) Si substrates

in Physica Status Solidi A. Applications and Materials Science (2002), 194(2), 472-475

In the current work the performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs fabricated on silicon substrates is presented. The AlGaN/GaN material structures were grown on (111) Si by MOVPE. Static I–V characteristics with a ... [more ▼]

In the current work the performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs fabricated on silicon substrates is presented. The AlGaN/GaN material structures were grown on (111) Si by MOVPE. Static I–V characteristics with a saturation current of 0.91 A/mm and a peak extrinsic transconductance of 122 mS/mm were measured and show minimal thermal effects. For devices with a gate length of 0.7 um and 0.5 um, a unity gain frequency of 20 GHz and 32 GHz and a maximum frequency of oscillation of 22 GHz and 27 GHz, respectively were obtained. The unity gain frequencies are the highest values reported so far on AlGaN/GaN/Si HEMTs and fully comparable to those known for devices using sapphire and SiC substrates. However, the fmax to fT ratio is only about 1, which indicates on parasitic conduction through the Si substrate under small signal conditions. It is shown that the saturation current and the transconductance decrease much less with increased temperature than known for similar devices grown on sapphire. [less ▲]

Photoionization spectroscopy of traps in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

in Journal of Electronic Materials (2002), 31(12), 1321-1324

Thin low-temperature gate oxides for vertical field-effect transistor, ,

in Proc. 4th Intern. Conf. Advanced Semicon. Dev. & Microsystems (2002)

Material and Device Issues of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Silicon Substrates

in Materials Research Society Symposia Proceedings (2002), 743, L9.1.1

Results on the preparation and properties of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on silicon substrates are presented and selected issues related to the material structure and device performance devices are discussed ... [more ▼]

Results on the preparation and properties of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on silicon substrates are presented and selected issues related to the material structure and device performance devices are discussed. Virtually crack-free AlGaN/GaN heterostructures (xAlN ≅ 0.25), with low surface roughness (rms of 0.64 nm), ns ≅ 1×1013 cm-2 and μ ≅ 1100 cm2/V s at 300 K, were grown by LP-MOVPE on 2-inch (111)Si substrates. HEMT devices with Lg = 0.3−0.7 μm were prepared by conventional device processing steps. Photoionization spectroscopy measurements have shown that a trap level of 1.85 eV, additional to two levels of 2.9 and 3.2 eV found before on GaN-based HEMTs on sapphire, is present in the structures investigated. Self-heating effects were studied by means of temperature dependent dc measurements. The channel temperature of a HEMT on Si increases with dissipated power much slower than for similar devices on sapphire substrate (e.g. reaches 95 and 320 °C on Si and sapphire, respectively, for 6 W/mm power). Prepared AlGaN/GaN/Si HEMTs exhibit saturation currents up to 0.91 A/mm, a good pinch-off, peak extrinsic transconductances up to 150 mS/mm and static heat dissipation capability up to ~16 W/mm. Unity current gain frequencies fT up to 21 and 32 GHz were obtained on devices with gate length of 0.7 and 0.5 μm, respectively. The saturation current and fT values are comparable to those known for similar devices using sapphire and SiC substrates. Properties of AlGaN/GaN/Si HEMTs investigated show that this technology brings a prospect for commercial application of high power rf devices. [less ▲]