We report the electrical properties of Al0.3Ga0.7N/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor (HFET) structures with a Ga2O3 passivation layer grown by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). In this study, three different thicknesses of β-Ga2O3 dielectric layers were grown on Al0.3Ga0.7N/GaN structures leading to metal-oxide-semiconductor-HFET or MOSHFET structures. X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed the (2¯01) orientation peaks of β-Ga2O3 in the device structure. The van der Pauw and Hall measurements yield the electron density of ~ 4 × 1018 cm−3 and mobility of ~770 cm2V−1s−1 in the 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) channel at room temperature. Capacitance–voltage (C-V) measurement for the on-state 2DEG density for the MOSHFET structure was found to be of the order of ~1.5 × 1013 cm−2. The thickness of the Ga2O3 layer was inversely related to the threshold voltage and the on-state capacitance. The interface charge density between the oxide and Al0.3Ga0.7N barrier layer was found to be of the order of ~1012 cm2eV−1. A significant reduction in leakage current from ~10−4 A/cm2 for HFET to ~10−6 A/cm2 for MOSHFET was observed well beyond pinch-off in the off-stage at -20 V applied gate voltage. The annealing at 900° C of the MOSHFET structures revealed that the Ga2O3 layer was thermally stable at high temperatures resulting in insignificant threshold voltage shifts for annealed samples with respect to as-deposited (unannealed) structures. Our results show that the MOCVD-gown Ga2O3 dielectric layers can be a strong candidate for stable high-power devices.
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Enhancement-Mode AlInN/GaN High-Electron-Mobility Transistors Enabled by Thermally Oxidized Gates
Enhancement mode AlInN/gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are fabricated by thermally oxidizing the barrier region under the gate. The oxidation is performed at 850 ∘ C in O 2 , and a SiN x mask is used to achieve selective oxidization of the AlInN layer. For comparison, a standard Schottky gate and atomic layer deposition (ALD) Al 2 O 3 metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) HEMTs are fabricated from the same structure and show depletion mode behavior as expected. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) mappings are performed to characterize the gate of the oxidized HEMTs, showing complete oxidation of the AlInN barrier. All the devices are tested to determine their transfer and output characteristics. The results show that the thermally oxidized gate produces a positive shift in threshold voltage at ∼ 4 V and low currents ( ∼ 2 × 10 −7 mA/mm) at zero gate voltage. The oxidized HEMTs are also subjected to postmetallization annealing (PMA) at 400 ∘ C and 500 ∘ C for 10 min flowing 1000 sccm of N 2 , retaining enhancement mode behavior and leading to a further positive shift in threshold voltage.
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- PAR ID:
- 10484786
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE transactions on electron devices
- ISSN:
- 0018-9383
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 7
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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