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.     

Modified model of gate leakage currents in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

It has been reported that the gate leakage currents are described by the Frenkel-Poole emission(FPE) model,at temperatures higher than 250 K.However,the gate leakage currents of our passivated devices do not accord with the FPE model.Therefore,a modified FPE model is developed in which an additional leakage current,besides the gate(Ⅰ_Ⅱ),is added.Based on the samples with different passivations,the Ⅰ_Ⅱ caused by a large number of surface traps is separated from total gate currents,and is found to be linear with respect to(φ_B-V_g)~(0.5).Compared with these from the FPE model,the calculated results from the modified model agree well with the I_g-V_g measurements at temperatures ranging from 295 K to 475 K.     

A novel Si-rich SiN bilayer passivation with thin-barrier AlGaN/GaN HEMTs for high performance millimeter-wave applications

We demonstrate a novel Si-rich SiN bilayer passivation technology for AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with thin-barrier to minimize surface leakage current to enhance the breakdown voltage. The bilayer SiN with 20-nm Si-rich SiN and 100-nm Si$_{3}$N$_{4}$ was deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) after removing 20-nm SiO$_{2}$ pre-deposition layer. Compared to traditional Si$_{3}$N$_{4}$ passivation for thin-barrier AlGaN/GaN HEMTs, Si-rich SiN bilayer passivation can suppress the current collapse ratio from 18.54% to 8.40%. However, Si-rich bilayer passivation leads to a severer surface leakage current, so that it has a low breakdown voltage. The 20-nm SiO$_{2}$ pre-deposition layer can protect the surface of HEMTs in fabrication process and decrease Ga-O bonds, resulting in a lower surface leakage current. In contrast to passivating Si-rich SiN directly, devices with the novel Si-rich SiN bilayer passivation increase the breakdown voltage from 29 V to 85 V. Radio frequency (RF) small-signal characteristics show that HEMTs with the novel bilayer SiN passivation leads to $f_{\rm T}/f_{\rm max}$ of 68 GHz/102 GHz. At 30 GHz and $V_{\rm DS} = 20$ V, devices achieve a maximum $P_{\rm out}$ of 5.2 W/mm and a peak power-added efficiency (PAE) of 42.2%. These results indicate that HEMTs with the novel bilayer SiN passivation can have potential applications in the millimeter-wave range.     

On the reverse leakage current of Schottky contacts on free-standing GaN at high reverse biases

In this work, a dislocation-related tunneling leakage current model is developed to explain the temperature-dependent reverse current–voltage(I–V –T) characteristics of a Schottky barrier diode fabricated on free-standing GaN substrate for reverse-bias voltages up to-150 V. The model suggests that the reverse leakage current is dominated by the direct tunneling of electrons from Schottky contact metal into a continuum of states associated with conductive dislocations in GaN epilayer.A reverse leakage current ideality factor, which originates from the scattering effect at metal/GaN interface, is introduced into the model. Good agreement between the experimental data and the simulated I–V curves is obtained.     

Negative transconductance effect in p-GaN gate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs by traps in unintentionally doped GaN buffer layer

We investigate the negative transconductance effect in p-GaN gate AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor(HEMT) associated with traps in the unintentionally doped GaN buffer layer. We find that a negative transconductance effect occurs with increasing the trap concentration and capture cross section when calculating transfer characteristics.The electron tunneling through AlGaN barrier and the reduced electric field discrepancy between drain side and gate side induced by traps are reasonably explained by analyzing the band diagrams, output characteristics, and the electric field strength of the channel of the devices under different trap concentrations and capture cross sections.     

Dry etching of MgCaO gate dielectric and passivation layers on GaN

MgCaO films grown by rf plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy and capped with Sc₂O₃ are promising candidates as surface passivation layers and gate dielectrics on GaN-based high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and metal-oxide semiconductor HEMTs (MOS-HEMTs), respectively. Two different plasma chemistries were examined for etching these thin films on GaN. Inductively coupled plasmas of CH₄/H₂/Ar produced etch rates only in the range 20-70 Å/min, comparable to the Ar sputter rates under the same conditions. Similarly slow MgCaO etch rates (∼100 Å/min) were obtained with Cl₂/Ar discharges under the same conditions, but GaN showed rates almost an order of magnitude higher. The MgCaO removal rates are limited by the low volatilities of the respective etch products. The CH₄/H₂/Ar plasma chemistry produced a selectivity of around 2 for etching the MgCaO with respect to GaN.     

AlGaN表面坑状缺陷及GaN缓冲层位错缺陷对AlGaN/GaN HEMT电流崩塌效应的影响

利用金属有机气相外延(MOVPE)技术生长了具有不同AlGaN表面坑状缺陷和GaN缓冲层位错缺陷密度的AlGaN/GaN 高电子迁移率晶体管(HEMT)样品,并对比研究了两种缺陷对器件栅、漏延迟电流崩塌效应的影响.栅延迟测试表明,AlGaN表面坑状缺陷会引起栅延迟电流崩塌效应和源漏电阻的增加,而且表面坑状缺陷越多,栅延迟电流崩塌程度和源漏电阻的增加越明显.漏延迟测试显示,AlGaN表面坑状缺陷对漏延迟电流崩塌影响不大,而GaN缓冲层位错缺陷主要影响漏延迟电流崩塌.研究结果表明,AlGaN表面坑状缺陷和Ga 关键词： AlGaN/GaN HEMT 电流崩塌 坑状缺陷 位错缺陷     

Barrier lowering and leakage current reduction in Ni-AlGaN/GaN Schottky diodes with an oxygen-treated GaN cap layer

We report on the effect of oxygen annealing for GaN surface on the Schottky barrier configuration and leakage current in Ni-AlGaN/GaN Schottky barrier diodes. After oxygen annealing, their turn-on voltage and reverse-bias leakage current characteristics are significantly improved due to a reduction in the Schottky barrier height (SBH) and suppression in the surface states respectively. Interface state density extracted from the Terman method was reduced by 2 orders of magnitude. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements show that the oxygen annealing induces Ga₂O₃ on the GaN surface. The formation of Ga₂O₃ reduces the interface state density as well as lowers the SBH through the modification of hybridized metal induced gap states.     

高场应力及栅应力下AlGaN/GaN HEMT器件退化研究

采用不同的高场应力和栅应力对AlGaN/GaN HEMT器件进行直流应力测试,实验发现：应力后器件主要参数如饱和漏电流,跨导峰值和阈值电压等均发生了明显退化,而且这些退化还是可以完全恢复的;高场应力下,器件特性的退化随高场应力偏置电压的增加和应力时间的累积而增大;对于不同的栅应力,相对来说,脉冲栅应力和开态栅应力下器件特性的退化比关态栅应力下的退化大.对不同应力前后器件饱和漏电流,跨导峰值和阈值电压的分析表明,AlGaN势垒层陷阱俘获沟道热电子以及栅极电子在栅漏间电场的作用下填充虚栅中的表面态是这些不同应 关键词： AlGaN/GaN HEMT器件 表面态(虚栅) 势垒层陷阱 应力     

新型双异质结高电子迁移率晶体管的电流崩塌效应研究

针对传统单结GaN基高电子迁移率晶体管器件性能受电流崩塌效应和自加热效应限制的困境,对新型A1GaN/GaN/InGaN/GaN双异质结高电子迁移率晶体管的直流性质展开了系统研究.采用基于热电子效应和自加热效应的流体动力模型,研究了器件在不同偏压下电流崩塌和负微分电导效应与GaN沟道层厚度的相关.研究发现具有高势垒双异质的沟道层能更好地将电子限制在沟道中,显著减小高电场下热电子从沟道层向GaN缓冲层的穿透能力.提高GaN沟道层厚度可以有效抑制电流崩塌和和负微分输出电导,进而提高器件在高场作用下的性能.所得结果为进一步优化双异质结高电子迁移率晶体管结构提供了新思路,可促进新型GaN高电子迁移率晶体管器件在高功率、高频和高温等无线通讯领域内的广泛应用.     

晶格匹配InAlN/GaN异质结肖特基接触反向电流的电压与温度依赖关系

ln(I/E)-E 1/2 ln(I/E2)-E?1测量了晶格匹配InAlN/GaN异质结肖特基接触的反向变温电流-电压特性曲线,研究了反向漏电流的偏压与温度依赖关系.结果表明:1)电流是电压和温度的强函数,饱和电流远大于理论值,无法采用经典热发射模型解释;2)在低偏压区,数据满足线性依赖关系,电流斜率和激活能与Fre...     

Double layer a-Si:H/SiN:H deposited at low temperature for the passivation of N-type silicon

This work shows the influence of conditioning the Bi target previous to the pulsed laser deposition of Bi nanocomposite films on their optical and thermo-optical properties. The nanostructured films prepared by alternate pulsed laser deposition at room temperature in vacuum consist of Bi nanostructures (NSs) with different characteristic sizes that are organized in layers and embedded in an amorphous Al₂O₃ host. Preablation of the Bi target prior to deposition leads to higher Bi concentration and Bi NSs with larger average sizes. As a result a lower optical transmission and an enhanced thermo-optical contrast are observed.     

Investigating the effects of the interface defects on the gate leakage current in MOSFETs

The effects of the interface defects on the gate leakage current have been numerically modeled. The results demonstrate that the shallow and deep traps have different effects on the dependence relation of the stress-induced leakage current on the oxide electric field in the regime of direct tunneling, whereas both traps keep the same dependence relation in the regime of Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. The results also shows that the stress-induced leakage current will be the largest at a moderate oxide voltage for the electron interface traps but it increases with the decreasing oxide voltage for the hole interface traps. The results illustrate that the stress-induced leakage current strongly depends on the location of the electron interface traps but it weakly depends on the location of the hole interface traps. The increase in the gate leakage current caused by the electron interface traps can predict the increase, then decrease in the stress-induced leakage current, with decreasing oxide thickness, which is observed experimentally. And the electron interface trap level will have a large effect on the peak height and position.     

Numerical analysis of gate leakage current in AlGaN Schottky diodes

We studied theoretically the influence of the tunneling current on the leakage current in AlGaN Schottky diodes. It is shown that the most important conductance mechanism in these structures is the tunneling. The thermionic emission has lower influence on the total current practically throughout the whole reverse bias range and doping concentrations studied. For high doping concentrations we found very slow temperature dependence of the diode current.     

Breakdown voltage enhancement in GaN channel and AlGaN channel HEMTs using large gate metal height

A large gate metal height technique is proposed to enhance breakdown voltage in GaN channel and AlGaN channel high-electron-mobility-transistors(HEMTs).For GaN channel HEMTs with gate-drain spacing L_(GD)=2.5 μm,the breakdown voltage V_(BR) increases from 518 V to 582 V by increasing gate metal height h from 0.2 μm to 0.4 μm.For GaN channel HEMTs with L_(GD)=7 μm,V_(BR) increases from 953 V to 1310 V by increasing h from 0.8 μm to 1.6 μm.The breakdown voltage enhancement results from the increase of the gate sidewall capacitance and depletion region extension.For Al_(0.4)Ga_(0.6)N channel HEMT with L_(GD)=7 μm,V_(BR) increases from 1535 V to 1763 V by increasing h from 0.8μm to 1.6 μm,resulting in a high average breakdown electric field of 2.51 MV/cm.Simulation and analysis indicate that the high gate metal height is an effective method to enhance breakdown voltage in GaN-based HEMTs,and this method can be utilized in all the lateral semiconductor devices.     

GaN基异质结缓冲层漏电分析

通过对GaN基异质结材料C-V特性中耗尽电容的比较,得出AlGaN/GaN异质结缓冲层漏电与成核层的关系.实验结果表明,基于蓝宝石衬底低温GaN成核层和SiC衬底高温AlN成核层的异质结材料比基于蓝宝石衬底低温AlN成核层异质结材料漏电小、背景载流子浓度低.深入分析发现,基于薄成核层的异质结材料在近衬底的GaN缓冲层中具有高浓度的n型GaN导电层,而基于厚成核层的异质结材料的GaN缓冲层则呈高阻特性.GaN缓冲层中的n型导电层是导致器件漏电主要因素之一,适当提高成核层的质量和厚度可有效降低GaN缓冲层的背景载流子浓度,提高GaN缓冲层的高阻特性,抑制缓冲层漏电. 关键词： AlGaN/GaN异质结 GaN缓冲层 漏电 成核层     

Improved breakdown voltage of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs grown on Si substrates using partially Mg-doped GaN buffer layer by MOCVD

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors(HEMTs) were grown on Si substrates by MOCVD.In the HEMT structure,a 1 μm GaN buffer layer was partially doped with Mg in an attempt to increase the resistivity and minimize the buffer leakage.The AlGaN/GaN HEMTs grown on undoped and partially Mg-doped GaN buffer layers were processed and the DC characteristics of the devices were characterized for comparing the effect of Mg doping.For the device with the partially Mg-doped GaN buffer layer,a lower drain leakage current density of 55.8 nA/mm,a lower gate leakage current density of 2.73 μA/mm,and a higher off-state breakdown voltage of 104 V were achieved with device dimensions Lg/Wg/Lgs/Lgd=1/10/1/1 μm,better than the device with the undoped GaN buffer layer,which has a higher drain leakage current density of 9.2 μA/mm,a higher gate leakage current density of 91.8 μA/mm,and a lower off-state breakdown voltage of 87 V with the same device dimensions.     

Low-leakage-current AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si substrates with partially Mg-doped GaN buffer layer by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

High-performance low-leakage-current AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors(HEMTs) on silicon(111) substrates grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition(MOCVD) with a novel partially Magnesium(Mg)-doped GaN buffer scheme have been fabricated successfully. The growth and DC results were compared between Mg-doped GaN buffer layer and a unintentionally one. A 1-μm gate-length transistor with Mg-doped buffer layer exhibited an OFF-state drain leakage current of 8.3 × 10-8A/mm, to our best knowledge, which is the lowest value reported for MOCVD-grown AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si featuring the same dimension and structure. The RF characteristics of 0.25-μm gate length T-shaped gate HEMTs were also investigated.     

Low-leakage-current AIGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si substrates with partially Mg-doped GaN buffer layer by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

High-performance low-leakage-current A1GaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors （HEMTs） on silicon （111） sub- strates grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition （MOCVD） with a novel partially Magnesium （Mg）-doped GaN buffer scheme have been fabricated successfully. The growth and DC results were compared between Mg-doped GaN buffer layer and a unintentionally onμe. A 1μ m gate-length transistor with Mg-doped buffer layer exhibited an OFF-state drain leakage current of 8.3 × 10-8 A/mm, to our best knowledge, which is the lowest value reported for MOCVD-grown A1GaN/GaN HEMTs on Si featuring the same dimension and structure. The RF characteristics of 0.25-μ m gate length T-shaped gate HEMTs were also investigated.     

超薄栅超短沟LDD nMOSFET中栅电压对栅致漏极泄漏电流影响研究

本文研究了90nm CMOS工艺下栅氧化层厚度为1.4 nm沟道长度为100 nm的轻掺杂漏(LDD)nMOSFET栅电压V_G对栅致漏极泄漏 (GIDL)电流I_d的影响,发现不同V_G下ln (I_d/(V_DG-1.2))-1/(V_DG-1.2)曲线相比大尺寸厚栅器件时发生了分裂现象. 通过比较V_G变化下ln(I_d/(V_DG-1.2))的差值,得出V_G与这种分裂现象之间的作用机理,分裂现象的产生归因于V_G的改变影响了GIDL电流横向空穴隧穿部分所致. 随着|V_G|的变小,ln(I_d/(V_DG-1.2))曲线的斜率的绝对值变小.进一步发现不同V_G对应的ln (I_d/(V_DG-1.2))曲线的斜率c及截距d与V_G呈线性关系,c,d曲线的斜率分别为3.09和-0.77. c与d定量的体现了超薄栅超短沟器件中V_G对GIDL电流的影响,基于此,提出了一个引入V_G 影响的新GIDL电流关系式.