In-situ SiN combined with etch-stop barrier structure for high-frequency AlGaN/GaN HEMT

The etch-stop structure including the in-situ SiN and AlGaN/GaN barrier is proposed for high frequency applications.The etch-stop process is realized by placing an in-situ SiN layer on the top of the thin AlGaN barrier.F-based etching can be self-terminated after removing SiN,leaving the AlGaN barrier in the gate region.With this in-situ SiN and thin barrier etch-stop structure,the short channel effect can be suppressed,meanwhile achieving highly precisely controlled and low damage etching process.The device shows a maximum drain current of 1022 mA/mm,a peak transconductance of 459 mS/mm,and a maximum oscillation frequency(fmax)of 248 GHz.     

高质量氧化镓单晶及肖特基二极管的制备

本文采用导模法生长技术,成功制备了高质量掺Si氧化镓(β-Ga₂O₃)单晶,掺杂浓度为2×10¹⁸ cm^-3.晶体呈现淡蓝色,通过劳厄衍射、阴极荧光(CL)及拉曼测试对晶体的基本性质进行了表征,结果表明晶体质量良好.紫外透过光谱证明该晶体的禁带宽度约为4.71 eV.此外,在剥离衬底上,采用电子束蒸发、光刻和显影技术制备了垂直结构的肖特基二极管,平均击穿场强EAva为2.1 MV/cm,导通电阻3 mΩ·cm²,展示了优异性能.     

High-frequency enhancement-mode millimeterwave AlGaN/GaN HEMT with an fT/fmax over 100 GHz/200 GHz

Ultra-thin barrier (UTB) 4-nm-AlGaN/GaN normally-off high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) having a high current gain cut-off frequency (f_T) are demonstrated by the stress-engineered compressive SiN trench technology. The compressive in-situ SiN guarantees the UTB-AlGaN/GaN heterostructure can operate a high electron density of 1.27×10¹³cm^-2, a high uniform sheet resistance of 312.8 Ω /□, but a negative threshold for the short-gate devices fabricated on it. With the lateral stress-engineering by full removing in-situ SiN in the 600-nm SiN trench, the short-gated (70 nm) devices obtain a threshold of 0.2 V, achieving the devices operating at enhancement-mode (E-mode). Meanwhile, the novel device also can operate a large current of 610 mA/mm and a high transconductance of 394 mS/mm for the E-mode devices. Most of all, a high f_T/f_max of 128 GHz/255 GHz is obtained, which is the highest value among the reported E-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. Besides, being together with the 211 GHz/346 GHz of f_T/f_max for the D-mode HEMTs fabricated on the same materials, this design of E/D-mode with the realization of f_max over 200 GHz in this work is the first one that can be used in Q-band mixed-signal application with further optimization. And the minimized processing difference between the E- and D-mode designs the addition of the SiN trench, will promise an enormous competitive advantage in the fabricating costs.     

Interface states in Al2O3/AlGaN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor structure by frequency dependent conductance technique

Frequency dependent conductance measurements are implemented to investigate the interface states in Al2O3/AlGaN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor(MOS) structures. Two types of device structures, namely, the recessed gate structure(RGS) and the normal gate structure(NGS), are studied in the experiment. Interface trap parameters including trap density Dit, trap time constant τit, and trap state energy ETin both devices have been determined. Furthermore,the obtained results demonstrate that the gate recess process can induce extra traps with shallower energy levels at the Al2O3/AlGaN interface due to the damage on the surface of the AlGaN barrier layer resulting from reactive ion etching(RIE).     

The Anomalous Effect of Interface Traps on Generation Current in Lightly Doped Drain nMOSFET＇s

The anomalous phenomenon of generation current ICD in the lightly doped drain （LDD） nMOSFET measured under the drain bias VD-step mode is reported. We propose an assumption of activated （A） and frozen （F） traps for the VD-step mode： The A traps contributes to ICD while the F process can make them lose the roles as generation centers. The A and F regions can form the F-A region. The comparison of the F and A regions decides the role of the F-A region. The experiments confirm the assumption.     

Study on the drain bias effect on negative bias temperature instability degradation of an ultra-short p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor

This paper studies the effect of drain bias on ultra-short p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (PMOSFET) degradation during negative bias temperature (NBT) stress. When a relatively large gate voltage is applied, the degradation magnitude is much more than the drain voltage which is the same as the gate voltage supplied, and the time exponent gets larger than that of the NBT instability (NBTI). With decreasing drain voltage, the degradation magnitude and the time exponent all get smaller. At some values of the drain voltage, the degradation magnitude is even smaller than that of NBTI, and when the drain voltage gets small enough, the exhibition of degradation becomes very similar to the NBTI degradation. When a relatively large drain voltage is applied, with decreasing gate voltage, the degradation magnitude gets smaller. However, the time exponent becomes larger. With the help of electric field simulation, this paper concludes that the degradation magnitude is determined by the vertical electric field of the oxide, the amount of hot holes generated by the strong channel lateral electric field at the gate/drain overlap region, and the time exponent is mainly controlled by localized damage caused by the lateral electric field of the oxide in the gate/drain overlap region where hot carriers are produced.     

Comparative study of different properties of GaN films grown on(0001) sapphire using high and low temperature AlN interlayers

Comparative study of high and low temperature AlN interlayers and their roles in the properties of GaN epilayers prepared by means of metal organic chemical vapour deposition on (0001) plane sapphire substrates is carried out by high resolution x-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy. It is found that the crystalline quality of GaN epilayers is improved significantly by using the high temperature AlN interlayers, which prevent the threading dislocations from extending, especially for the edge type dislocation. The analysis results based on photoluminescence and Raman measurements demonstrate that there exist more compressive stress in GaN epilayers with high temperature AlN interlayers. The band edge emission energy increases from 3.423~eV to 3.438~eV and the frequency of Raman shift of $E_{2 }$(TO) moves from 571.3~cm$^{ - 1}$ to 572.9~cm$^{ - 1}$ when the temperature of AlN interlayers increases from 700~$^{\circ}$C to 1050~$^{\circ}$C. It is believed that the temperature of AlN interlayers effectively determines the size, the density and the coalescence rate of the islands, and the high temperature AlN interlayers provide large size and low density islands for GaN epilayer growth and the threading dislocations are bent and interactive easily. Due to the threading dislocation reduction in GaN epilayers with high temperature AlN interlayers, the approaches of strain relaxation reduce drastically, and thus the compressive stress in GaN epilayers with high temperature AlN interlayers is high compared with that in GaN epilayers with low temperature AlN interlayers.     

Effects of the strain relaxation of an AlGaN barrier layer induced by various cap layers on the transport properties in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures

The strain relaxation of an AlGaN barrier layer may be influenced by a thin cap layer above, and affects the transport properties of AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. Compared with the slight strain relaxation found in AlGaN barrier layer without cap layer, it is found that a thin cap layer can induce considerable changes of strain state in the AlGaN barrier layer. The degree of relaxation of the AlGaN layer significantly influences the transport properties of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. It is observed that electron mobility decreases with the increasing degree of relaxation of the AlGaN barrier, which is believed to be the main cause of the deterioration of crystalline quality and morphology on the AlGaN/GaN interface. On the other hand, both GaN and AlN cap layers lead to a decrease in 2DEG density. The reduction of 2DEG caused by the GaN cap layer may be attributed to the additional negative polarization charges formed at the interface between GaN and AlGaN, while the reduction of the piezoelectric effect in the AlGaN layer results in the decrease of 2DEG density in the case of AlN cap layer.