Fabrication and characterization at high temperature of AlGaN/GaN enhancement HEMTs

Enhancement-mode (E-mode) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) based on a standard AlGaN/GaN heterostructure have been fabricated using two different methods: 19F implantation and fluorine-based plasma treatment. The need of a thermal annealing after both treatments has been proven in order to restore the ID and gm levels. DC characterization at high temperature has demonstrated that ID and gm decrease reversibly due to the reduction of the electron mobility and the drift velocity. Pulsed measurements (state period and variable pulse width) have been performed to study the self-heating effects

Impact of N2 plasma power discharge on AlGaN/GaN HEMT performance

The effects of power and time conditions of in situ N2 plasma treatment, prior to silicon nitride (SiN) passivation, were investigated on an AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT). These studies reveal that N2 plasma power is a critical parameter to control the SiN/AlGaN interface quality, which directly affects the 2-D electron gas density. Significant enhancement in the HEMT characteristics was observed by using a low power N2 plasma pretreatment. In contrast, a marked gradual reduction in the maximum drain-source current density (IDS max) and maximum transconductance (gm max), as well as in fT and fmax, was observed as the N2 plasma power increases (up to 40% decrease for 210 W). Different mechanisms were proposed to be dominant as a function of the discharge power range. A good correlation was observed between the device electrical characteristics and the surface assessment by atomic force microscopy and Kelvin force microscopy techniques

Impact of N2 plasma power and duration on AlGaN/GaN HEMT

urface treatments have been recently shown to play an active role in electrical characteristics in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs, in particular during the passivation processing [1-4]. However, the responsible mechanisms are partially unknown and further studies are demanding. The effects of power and time N2 plasma pre-treatment prior to SiN deposition using PE-CVD (plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition) on GaN and AlGaN/GaN HEMT have been investigated. The low power (60 W) plasma pre-treatment was found to improve the electronic characteristics in GaN based HEMT devices, independently of the time duration up to 20 min. In contrast, high power (150 and 210 W) plasma pretreatment showed detrimental effects in the electronic properties (Fig. 1), increasing the sheet resistance of the 2DEG, decreasing the 2DEG charge density in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs, transconductance reduction and decreasing the fT and fmax values up to 40% respect to the case using 60 W N2 plasma power. Although AFM (atomic force microscopy) results showed AlGaN and GaN surface roughness is not strongly affected by the N2-plasma, KFM (Kelvin force microscopy) surface analysis shows significant changes in the surface potential, trending to increase its values as the plasma power is higher. The whole results point at energetic ions inducing polarization-charge changes that affect dramatically to the 2-DEG charge density and the final characteristics of the HEMT devices. Therefore, we conclude that AlGaN surface is strongly sensitive to N2 plasma power conditions, which turn to be a key factor to achieve a good surface preparation prior to SiN passivation

High Temperature Pulsed and DC Performance of AlInN/GaN HEMTs

The AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) have been considered as promising candidates for the next generation of high temperature, high frequency, high-power devices. The potential of GaN-based HEMTs may be improved using an AlInN barrier because of its better lattice match to GaN, resulting in higher sheet carrier densities without piezoelectric polarization [1]. This work has been focused on the study of AlInN HEMTs pulse and DC mode characterization at high temperature

Physical modeling and optimization of a GaN HEMT design with a field plate structure for high frequency application

Abstract: In this paper, physical modeling of a GaN HEMT with a field plate structure is proposed, with the objective of providing the connection between the physical design parameters of the device (geometry, Al mole fraction, type of the field plate, etc) and on-resistance together with parasitic capacitances of the device. In this way, it is possible to optimize the design of a switching device for a particular application, which in our case is a high frequency DC DC converter for Envelope Tracking and Envelope Elimination and Restoration techniques. In this work, extrinsic models for output characteristics together with input, output and reverse capacitance of a depletion mode GaN HEMT with a field plate structure were obtained. The obtained physical model was implemented in a Simplorer simulation model of a high frequency buck converter and verified by the prototype that employed modeled GaN HEMT, operating at 7, 15 and 20MHz of switching frequency. Comparing to the measured efficiency curves, simulation results showed good agreement, especially in the low power range at high switching frequency, which are the operating conditions in our application

Physical model for GaN HEMT design optimization in high frequency switching applications

In this paper, physical modeling of a GaN HEMT is proposed, with the objective of device design optimization for application in a high frequency DC/DC converter. From the point of view of a switching application, physical model for input, output and reverse capacitance as well as for channel resistance is very important, since the aforementioned parameters determine power losses in the circuit. The obtained physical model of the switching device can be used for simulation models such as PSpice or hybrid behavioral power loss models for high frequency DC/DC converters. In this work, extrinsic model for Id (Vds, Vgs) output characteristics of a depletion mode GaN HEMT with a field plate structure was obtained, as well as physical model for input, output and reverse capacitance in the subthreshold regime. The model was implemented in Simplorer simulation model and verified by the measured efficiency curves of the buck converter prototype, using the GaN HEMT that was analyzed. With the increase of the switching frequency, precision of the model increases, especially in the low power area, which is the area of interest in our application

Extreme ultraviolet detection using AlGaN-on-Si inverted Schottky photodiodes

We report on the fabrication of aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) Schottky diodes for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) detection. AlGaN layers were grown on silicon wafers by molecular beam epitaxy with the conventional and inverted Schottky structure, where the undoped, active layer was grown before or after the n-doped layer, respectively. Different current mechanisms were observed in the two structures. The inverted Schottky diode was designed for the optimized backside sensitivity in the hybrid imagers. A cut-off wavelength of 280 nm was observed with three orders of magnitude intrinsic rejection ratio of the visible radiation. Furthermore, the inverted structure was characterized using a EUV source based on helium discharge and an open electrode design was used to improve the sensitivity. The characteristic He I and He II emission lines were observed at the wavelengths of 58.4 nm and 30.4 nm, respectively, proving the feasibility of using the inverted layer stack for EUV detectio