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Abstract We report on highly-scaled Al_0.25Ga_0.75N channel high electron mobility transistors. Regrown ohmic contacts covering the sidewall of the compressively strained Al_0.25Ga_0.75N channel exhibited a low contact resistance ofR_c= 0.23 Ω · mm. Scaled devices with a T-shaped gate showed record high speed for any AlGaN-based transistors,f_T/f_max= 67/166 GHz, while simultaneously achieving high average breakdown field exceeding 2 MV cm⁻¹. The load-pull measurements performed at 10 GHz revealed a 20% peak power added efficiency with an output power density of 2 W mm⁻¹, which is mainly limited by the RF dispersion. 

We present a compositional dependence study of electrical characteristics of AlxGa1−xN quantum well channel-based AlN/AlGaN/AlN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with x=0.25,0.44, and 0.58. This ultra-wide bandgap heterostructure is a candidate for next-generation radio frequency and power electronics. The use of selectively regrown n-type GaN Ohmic contacts results in contact resistance that increases as the Al content of the channel increases. The DC HEMT device characteristics reveal that the maximum drain current densities progressively reduce from 280 to 30 to 1.7 mA/mm for x=0.25,0.44, and 0.58, respectively. This is accompanied by a simultaneous decrease (in magnitude) in threshold voltage from −5.2 to −4.9 to −2.4 V for the three HEMTs. This systematic experimental study of the effects of Al composition x on the transistor characteristics provides valuable insights for engineering AlGaN channel HEMTs on AlN for extreme electronics at high voltages and high temperatures. 

Due to its high breakdown electric field, the ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor AlGaN has garnered much attention recently as a promising channel material for next-generation high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). A comprehensive experimental study of the effects of Al composition x on the transport and structural properties is lacking. We report the charge control and transport properties of polarization-induced 2D electron gases (2DEGs) in strained AlGaN quantum well channels in molecular-beam-epitaxy-grown AlN/Al x Ga 1− x N/AlN double heterostructures by systematically varying the Al content from x = 0 (GaN) to x = 0.74, spanning energy bandgaps of the conducting HEMT channels from 3.49 to 4.9 eV measured by photoluminescence. This results in a tunable 2DEG density from 0 to 3.7 × 10 13 cm 2 . The room temperature mobilities of x ≥ 0.25 AlGaN channel HEMTs were limited by alloy disorder scattering to below 50 cm 2 /(V.s) for these 2DEG densities, leaving ample room for further heterostructure design improvements to boost mobilities. A characteristic alloy fluctuation energy of [Formula: see text] eV for electron scattering in AlGaN alloy is estimated based on the temperature dependent electron transport experiments. 

Using epitaxial aluminum nitride (AlN) developed for ultraviolet photonics and high-speed electronics, we demonstrate suspended AlN thin-film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs) at 9.2 GHz in the X-band (8–12 GHz) of the microwave spectrum. The resonators show a Qmax≈614 and a figure of merit f⋅Q≈5.6 THz. The material stack of these epi-AlN FBARs allows monolithic integration with AlN/GaN/AlN quantum well high-electron-mobility-transistors to a unique RF front end and also enable integration with epitaxial nitride superconductors for microwave filters for quantum computing.