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

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.