Investigation of passivation effects in AlGaN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor high electron-mobility transistor by gate-drain conductance dispersion study

This paper studies the drain current collapse of AlGaN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor high electron-mobility transistors (MIS-HEMTs) with NbAlO dielectric by applying dual-pulsed stress to the gate and drain of the device.For NbAlO MIS-HEMT,smaller current collapse is found,especially when the gate static voltage is 8 V.Through a thorough study of the gate-drain conductance dispersion,it is found that the growth of NbAlO can reduce the trap density of the AlGaN surface.Therefore,fewer traps can be filled by gate electrons,and hence the depletion effect in the channel is suppressed effectively.It is proved that the NbAlO gate dielectric can not only decrease gate leakage current but also passivate the AlGaN surface effectively,and weaken the current collapse effect accordingly.     

Optical and structural investigation of a-plane GaN layers on r-plane sapphire with nucleation layer optimization

Nonpolar a-plane GaN epilayers are grown on several r-plane sapphire substrates by metal organic chemical vapour deposition using different nucleation layers:(A) a GaN nucleation layer deposited at low temperature(LT);(B) an AlN nucleation layer deposited at high temperature;or(C) an LT thin AlN nucleation layer with an AlN layer and an AlN/AlGaN superlattice both subsequently deposited at high temperature.The samples have been characterized by Xray diffraction(XRD),atomic force microscopy and photoluminescence.The GaN layers grown using nucleation layers B and C show narrower XRD rocking curves than that using nucleation layer A,indicating a reduction in crystal defect density.Furthermore,the GaN layer grown using nucleation layer C exhibits a surface morphology with triangular defect pits eliminated completely.The improved optical property,corresponding to the enhanced crystal quality,is also confirmed by temperature-dependent and excitation power-dependent photoluminescence measurements.     

基于AlGaN/GaN共振隧穿二极管的退化现象的研究

文章研究了GaN基共振隧穿二极管 (RTD) 的退化现象. 通过向AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN量子阱中引入三个实测的深能级陷阱中心并自洽求解薛定谔方程和泊松方程, 计算并且讨论了陷阱中心对GaN基RTD的影响. 结果表明, GaN基RTD的退化现象是由陷阱中心的缺陷密度和激活能的共同作用引起. 由于陷阱中心的电离率和激活能的指数呈正相关关系, 因此具有高激活能的陷阱中心俘获更多电子, 对负微分电阻 (NDR) 特性的退化起主导作用. 关键词： 共振隧穿二极管 GaN 陷阱中心 电离率     

低反向漏电自支撑衬底AlGaN/GaN肖特基二极管

氮化镓材料具有大的禁带宽度(3.4 eV)、高的击穿场强(3.3 MV/cm),在高温、高压等方面有良好的应用前景.尤其是对于铝镓氮/氮化镓异质结构材料而言,由极化效应产生的高面密度和高迁移率二维电子气在降低器件导通电阻、提高器件工作效率方面具有极大的优势.由于缺乏高质量、大尺寸的氮化镓单晶衬底,常规氮化镓材料均是在蓝宝石、硅和碳化硅等异质衬底上外延而成.较大的晶格失配和热失配导致异质外延过程中产生密度高达10~7—10¹⁰ cm^–2的穿透位错,使器件性能难以进一步提升.本文采用基于自支撑氮化镓衬底的铝镓氮/氮化镓异质结构材料制备凹槽阳极结构肖特基势垒二极管,通过对欧姆接触区域铝镓氮势垒层刻蚀深度的精确控制,依托单步自对准凹槽欧姆接触技术解决了低位错密度自支撑氮化镓材料的低阻欧姆接触技术难题,实现了接触电阻仅为0.37Ω·mm的低阻欧姆接触;通过采用慢速低损伤刻蚀技术制备阳极凹槽区域,使器件阳极金属与氮化镓导电沟道直接接触,实现了高达3×107开关比的高性能器件,且器件开启电压仅为0.67 V, 425 K高温下,器件反向漏电仅为1.6×10...     

Improvement of reverse blocking performance in vertical power MOSFETs with Schottky–drain-connected semisuperjunctions

To enhance the reverse blocking capability with low specific on-resistance,a novel vertical metal-oxidesemiconductor field-effect transistor(MOSFET) with a Schottky-drian(SD) and SD-connected semisuperjunctions(SDD-semi-SJ),named as SD-D-semi-SJ MOSFET is proposed and demonstrated by two-dimensional(2D) numerical simulations.The SD contacted with the n-pillar exhibits the Schottky-contact property,and that with the p-pillar the Ohmic-contact property.Based on these features,the SD-D-semi-SJ MOSFET could obviously overcome the great obstacle of the ineffectivity of the conventional superjunctions(SJ) or semisuperjunctions(semi-SJ) for the reverse applications and achieve a satisfactory trade-off between the reverse breakdown voltage(BV) and the specific on-resistance(R_(on)A).For a given pillar width and n-drift thickness,there exists a proper range of n-drift concentration(N),in which the SD-D-semi-SJ MOSFET could exhibit a better trade-off of R_(on)A-BV compared to the predication of SJ MOSFET in the forward applications.And what is much valuable,in this proper range of N,the desired BV and good trade-off could be achieved only by determining the pillar thickness,with the top assist layer thickness unchanged.Detailed analyses have been carried out to get physical insights into the intrinsic mechanism of R_(on)A-BV improvement in SD-D-semi-SJ MOSFET.These results demonstrate a great potential of SD-D-semi-SJ MOSFET in reverse applications.     

Influence of double A1N buffer layers on the qualities of GaN films prepared by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition

<正>In this paper we report that the GaN thin film is grown by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition on a sapphire (0001) substrate with double AlN buffer layers.The buffer layer consists of a low-temperature(LT) AlN layer and a high-temperature(HT) AlN layer that are grown at 600℃and 1000℃,respectively.It is observed that the thickness of the LT-AlN layer drastically influences the quality of GaN thin film,and that the optimized 4.25-min-LT-AlN layer minimizes the dislocation density of GaN thin film.The reason for the improved properties is discussed in this paper.     

Investigation on threshold voltage of p-channel GaN MOSFETs based on p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure

The threshold voltage (V_th) of the p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) is investigated via Silvaco-Atlas simulations. The main factors which influence the threshold voltage of p-channel GaN MOSFETs are barrier height Φ_1,p, polarization charge density σ_b, and equivalent unite capacitance C_oc. It is found that the thinner thickness of p-GaN layer and oxide layer will acquire the more negative threshold voltage V_th, and threshold voltage |V_th| increases with the reduction in p-GaN doping concentration and the work-function of gate metal. Meanwhile, the increase in gate dielectric relative permittivity may cause the increase in threshold voltage |V_th|. Additionally, the parameter influencing output current most is the p-GaN doping concentration, and the maximum current density is 9.5 mA/mm with p-type doping concentration of 9.5×10¹⁶ cm^-3 at V_GS = -12 V and V_DS = -10 V.     

Novel CMOS image sensor pixel to improve charge transfer speed and efficiency by overlapping gate and temporary storage diffusing node

A novel CMOS image sensor(CIS) pinned photodiode(PPD) pixel, named as O-T pixel, is proposed and investigated by TCAD simulations. Compared with the conventional PPD pixel, the proposed pixel features the overlapping gate(OG)and the temporary storage diffusing(TSD) region, based on which the several-nanosecond-level charge transfer could be achieved and the complete charge transfer from the PPD to the floating node(FD) could be realized. And systematic analyses of the influence of the doping conditions of the proposed processes, the OG length, and the photodiode length on the transfer performances of the proposed pixel are conducted. Optimized simulation results show that the total charge transfer time could reach about 5.862 ns from the photodiode to the sensed node and the corresponding charge transfer efficiency could reach as high as 99.995% in the proposed pixel with 10 μm long photodiode and 2.22 μm long OG. These results demonstrate a great potential of the proposed pixel in high-speed applications.     

Improved performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMT by N2O plasma pre-treatment

The influence of an N_2O plasma pre-treatment technique on characteristics of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor(HEMT) prepared by using a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD) system is presented.After the plasma treatment,the peak transconductance(g_m) increases from 209 mS/mm to 293 mS/mm.Moreover,it is observed that the reverse gate leakage current is lowered by one order of magnitude and the drain current dispersion is improved in the plasma-treated device.From the analysis of frequency-dependent conductance,it can be seen that the trap state density(D_T) and time constant(τ_T) of the N20-treated device are smaller than those of a non-treated device.The results indicate that the N_2O plasma pre-pretreatment before the gate metal deposition could be a promising approach to enhancing the performance of the device.     

Transport mechanism of reverse surface leakage current in AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistor with SiN passivation

The transport mechanism of reverse surface leakage current in the AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistor(HEMT) becomes one of the most important reliability issues with the downscaling of feature size.In this paper,the research results show that the reverse surface leakage current in AlGaN/GaN HEMT with SiN passivation increases with the enhancement of temperature in the range from 298 K to 423 K.Three possible transport mechanisms are proposed and examined to explain the generation of reverse surface leakage current.By comparing the experimental data with the numerical transport models,it is found that neither Fowler-Nordheim tunneling nor Frenkel-Poole emission can describe the transport of reverse surface leakage current.However,good agreement is found between the experimental data and the two-dimensional variable range hopping(2D-VRH) model.Therefore,it is concluded that the reverse surface leakage current is dominated by the electron hopping through the surface states at the barrier layer.Moreover,the activation energy of surface leakage current is extracted,which is around 0.083 eV.Finally,the SiN passivated HEMT with a high Al composition and a thin AlGaN barrier layer is also studied.It is observed that 2D-VRH still dominates the reverse surface leakage current and the activation energy is around 0.10 eV,which demonstrates that the alteration of the AlGaN barrier layer does not affect the transport mechanism of reverse surface leakage current in this paper.