In this paper, a novel A1GaN/GaN HEMT with a Schottky drain and a compound field plate (SD-CFP HEMT) is presented for the purpose of better reverse blocking capability. The compound field plate (CFP) consists of a drain field plate (DFP) and several floating field plates (FFPs). The physical mechanisms of the CFP to improve the reverse breakdown voltage and to modulate the distributions of channel electric field and potential are investigated by two-dimensional numer- ical simulations with Silvaco-ATLAS. Compared with the HEMT with a Schottky drain (SD HEMT) and the HEMT with a Schottky drain and a DFP (SD-FP HEMT), the superiorities of SD-CFP HEMT lie in the continuous improvement of the reverse breakdown voltage by increasing the number of FFPs and in the same fabrication procedure as the SD-FP HEMT. Two useful optimization laws for the SD-CFP HEMTs are found and extracted from simulation results. The relationship between the number of the FFPs and the reverse breakdown voltage as well as the FP efficiency in SD-CFP HEMTs are discussed. The results in this paper demonstrate a great potential of CFP for enhancing the reverse blocking ability in A1GaN/GaN HEMT and may be of great value and significance in the design and actual manufacture of SD-CFP HEMTs.
In this paper, a new current expression based on both the direct currect (DC) characteristics of the A1GaN/GaN high election mobility transistor (HEMT) and the hyperbolic tangent function tanh is proposed, by which we can describe the kink effect of the A1GaN/GaN HEMT well. Then, an improved EEHEMT model including the proposed current expression is presented. The simulated and measured results of Ⅰ-Ⅴ, S-parameter, and radio frequency (RF) large-signal characteristics are compared for a self-developed on-wafer A1GaN/GaN HEMT with ten gate fingers each being 0.4-μm long and 125-p-m wide (Such an A1GaN/GaN HEMT is denoted as A1GaN/GaN HEMT (10 × 125 μm)). The improved large signal model simulates the Ⅰ-Ⅴ characteristic much more accurately than the original one, and its transconductance and RF characteristics are also in excellent agreement with the measured data.
Pulsed metal organic chemical vapor deposition is introduced into the growth of InGaN channel heterostructure for improving material qualities and transport properties. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy imaging shows the phase separation free InGaN channel with smooth and abrupt interface. A very high two-dimensional electron gas density of approximately 1.85 x 10^13 cm-2 is obtained due to the superior carrier confinement. In addition, the Hall mobility reaches 967 cruZ/V-s, owing to the suppression of interface roughness scattering. Furthermore, temperature-dependent Hall measurement results show that InGaN channel heterostructure possesses a steady two-dimensional electron gas density over the tested temperature range, and has superior transport properties at elevated temperatures compared with the traditional GaN channel heterostructure. The gratifying results imply that InGaN channel heterostructure grown by pulsed metal organic chemical vapor deposition is a promising candidate for microwave power devices.
We report on an improvement in the crystal quality of GaN film with an Ino.17Alo.83N interlayer grown by pulsed metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, which is in-plane lattice-matched to GaN films. The indium composition of about 17% and the reductions of both screw and edge threading dislocations (TDs) in GaN film with the InA1N interlayer are estimated by high resolution X-ray diffraction. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements are employed to understand the mechanism of reduction in TD density. Raman and photoluminescence measurements indicate that the InA1N interlayer can improve the crystal quality of GaN film, and verify that there is no additional residual stress induced into the GaN film with InA1N interlayer. Atomic force microscopy measurement shows that the InA1N interlayer brings in a smooth surface morphology of GaN film. All the results show that the insertion of the InA1N interlayer is a convenient method to achieve excellent crystal quality in GaN epitaxy.
In this paper, we present a two-dimensional (2D) fully analytical model with consideration of polarization effect for the channel potential and electric field distributions of the gate field-plated high electron mobility transistor (FP-HEMT) on the basis of 2D Poisson's solution. The dependences of the channel potential and electric field distributions on drain bias, polarization charge density, FP structure parameters, A1GaN/GaN material parameters, etc. are investigated. A simple and convenient approach to designing high breakdown voltage FP-HEMTs is also proposed. The validity of this model is demonstrated by comparison with the numerical simulations with Silvaco-Atlas. The method in this paper can be extended to the development of other analytical models for different device structures, such as MIS-HEMTs, multiple-FP HETMs, slant-FP HEMTs, etc.
Fe doping is an effective method to obtain high resistivity GaN epitaxial material. But in some cases, Fe doping could result in serious deterioration of the GaN material surface topography, which will affect the electrical properties of two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in HEMT device. In this paper, the influence of Fe doping on the surface topography of GaN epitaxial material is studied. The results of experiments indicate that the surface topography of Fe-doped GaN epitaxial material can be effectively improved and the resistivity could be increased after increasing the growth rate of GaN materials. The GaN material with good surface topography can be manu- factured when the Fe doping concentration is 9 × 1019 cm-3. High resistivity GaN epitaxial material which is 1 × 109 Ω.cm is achieved.