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In this work, the design, fabrication, static device testing, and double‐pulse switching performance of multi‐finger D‐mode GaN metal–insulator–semiconductor high‐electron‐mobility transistors (MISHEMTs) on silicon are discussed. Utilizing an metal‐organic chemical vapor deposition‐grown GaN high‐electron‐mobility transistors stack with a superlattice buffer, field‐plated devices with a meandering gate geometry and a total gate width of 30 mm are fabricated. Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition SiNx is used as the gate dielectric, followed by an optimized bilayer SiNx passivation scheme. Devices with 100 μm gate width have an ON/OFF ratio of ≈108. They are analyzed for dynamic Ron (normalized Ron = 3 at 100 μs) and time‐dependent dielectric breakdown for gate reliability, resulting in a β value of 2.65 from the Weibull plot. Devices with a 30 mm gate width exhibit a maximum ON current of 8 A at zero gate voltage and a three‐terminal breakdown of ≈500 V. The devices are diced, wire‐bonded to a printed circuit board, and a double‐pulsed test is performed for switching transient characterization under clamped inductive load. The OFF‐state and ON‐state energy loss are estimated to be Eon = 14 μJ and EOFF = 27 μJ, respectively, when switched at 5 A, 50 V. In this study, the potential of GaN MISHEMTs with bilayer SiNx passivation for low‐power D‐mode switching applications (5 A, 50 V) is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the experimental and analytical determination of the optimum carbon concentration in GaN to achieve enhanced breakdown in AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). The lateral breakdown voltage increases when carbon doping is increased from 3 × 1018 to 1019 cm−3 beyond which it decreases, whereas there is no substantial enhancement in the vertical breakdown voltage with carbon doping. We invoke carrier statistics in a compensated semiconductor vis-à-vis the formation energy of carbon-occupying Ga (or N) vacancies to explain the observed buffer leakage. Temperature-dependent data indicate that the buffer leakage current is due to hopping transport, the activation energy of which yields the positions of the defect states within the bandgap. The increase in buffer leakage beyond optimum C concentration is attributed to the formation of shallow donor traps by carbon atoms occupying Ga vacancies (CGa). The observations correlated with the relative intensities of the defect-mediated peaks in the cathodoluminescence (CL) data of the samples. Based on our findings, a C doping beyond 1019 cm−3 is not recommended for GaN buffers in order to achieve high breakdown voltages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the quantitative estimates of various metrics of performance for $\beta $ -Ga2O3-based high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) for RF and power applications and compare them with III-nitride devices. Device parameters such as electron velocity and current density are estimated based on an optical phonon model reported earlier. 2-D simulation using an appropriate velocity-field relationship was employed to study the device characteristics and to assess the RF performance. It is found that despite a lower cutoff frequency, $\beta $ -Ga2O0 HEMTs are likely to provide higher RF output power compared to GaN HEMTs in the low-frequency regime. However, the thermal resistance (TR) and the channel temperature of $\beta $ -Ga2O3 HEMTs are expected to be significantly higher than those of GaN HEMTs which will pose serious limitations on heat dissipation. $\beta $ -Ga2O3 modulation doped field effect transistor on extremely thinned substrates will have similar TR s as compared to GaN devices on GaN substrates. The cutoff frequency was found to drop by 50% as the power dissipation increases from 1 to 7 W/mm. On the other hand, for estimates of dc power switching performance, we estimate the net losses as a function of device periphery and find that $\sim {8}\times $ – ${10}\times $ lower electron mobility in Ga2O3 devices compared to that in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs will limit its dc switching as well as its ON- state performance in terms of efficiency, loss, and current carrying capability although the blocking voltage can be much higher than in GaN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the vertical leakage mechanism in metal–organic chemical vapor deposition-grown carbon (C)-doped AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) on 6-in silicon wafer. Substrate bias polarity-dependent ${I}$ – ${V}_{s}$ , temperature-dependent fitting, and band diagram analysis pointed to the Poole–Frenkel (P–F) type of conduction mechanism for vertical transport in the devices with breakdown as high as 580 V for a buffer of $\textsf {4}~\mu \text{m}$. Trap activation energy of 0.61 eV was estimated from the P–F fitting which matches well with values reported in the literature. We propose that higher dislocation density leads to shallower traps in the buffer and build an analytical model of dislocation-mediated vertical leakage around this. The variation in leakage as a function of dislocation density at a given field is predicted and is found to be the most abrupt in the range from $\sim 10^{\textsf {7}}$ to $\sim 10^{\textsf {9}}$ cm $^{-\textsf {2}}$ of dislocation density. This can be attributed to a sharp decrease in trap activation energy in the above range of dislocation density, possibly due to complex formation between point defects and dislocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the band offset and interfacial electronic properties of e-beam evaporated HfO2 gate dielectrics on III-nitride device stacks on Si. A conduction band offset of 1.9 eV is extracted for HfO2/GaN along with a very low density of fixed bulk and interfacial charges for optimally annealed samples. Normally-ON HfO2/AlGaN/GaN metal–insulator–semiconductor high-electron-mobility transistors exhibit negligible shifts in threshold voltage, transconductances of 120 mS/mm for 3- $\mu \text{m}$ gate length devices, and three-terminal off-state gate leakage currents of 55 nA/mm at a ${V}_{D}$ of 100 V. Dynamic capacitance dispersion measurements in the temperature range of 25 °C–200 °C show two peaks at the AlGaN/GaN interface corresponding to slow and fast interface traps with a peak ${D}_{\text {it}}$ of ${5.5}\times {10}^{13}$ and ${1.5} \times {10}^{13}$ eV−1cm−2 respectively as a function of Fermi level position above ${E}_{C}$. The HfO2/AlGaN interface exhibits a reasonably constant peak ${D}_{\text {it}}$ of ${2} \times {10}^{13}$ – ${4.4} \times {10}^{13}$ eV−1cm−2 at trap levels of 0.42–0.72 eV below ${E}_{\text {C}}$. Hysteretic pulsed $I_{D}$ – $V_{G}$ measurements revealed a negative shift in threshold voltages indicative of unoccupied donor-like trap states at the HfO2/AlGaN interface and comparable ${D}_{\text {it}}$ to that inferred from conductance measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate an InAlN/GaN-on-Si high electron mobility transistor based UV detector with a photo-to-dark current ratio of >107. The Ti/Al/Ni/Au metal stack was evaporated and thermal annealed rapidly for Ohmic contacts to the 2D electron gas (2DEG) at the InAlN/GaN interface, while the channel+barrier was recess etched to a depth of 20nm to pinch-off the 2DEG between Source-Drain pads. A spectral responsivity (SR) of 32.9A/W at 367nm was measured at 5V. A very high photo-to-dark current ratio of >107 was measured at a bias of 20V. The photo-to-dark current ratio at a fixed bias was found to be decreasing with an increase in the recess length of photodetectors. The fabricated devices were found to exhibit a UV-to-visible rejection ratio of >10³ with a low dark currentof < 32pA at 5V. Transient measurements showed rise and fall times in the range of 3-4ms. The gain mechanism was investigated, and carrier lifetimes were estimated which matched well with those reported elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An explanation for the observed drain current collapse in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors is presented. The drain current–voltage (I\--V) characteristics which show this undesirable behavior have been modeled using the physics-based ATLAS device simulator by Silvaco. A basic theory for the determination of virtual gate length for a three terminal device has been developed and used in the simulation. The simulated I\--V characteristics closely match the experimental results. This paper suggests a model based on formation of a high resistance region under the virtual gate in the 2-D electron gas channel. The resistance of this region changes abruptly at a critical lateral electric field due to application of drain–source voltage. This abrupt change has been found to be a function of channel temperature. The dynamic behavior of this high resistance region has been proposed to be the cause of drain current collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the demonstration of UV/visible and UV/near-IR photodetectors of high spectral responsivity (SR) in a non-conventional heterojunction, realized by combining multi-layered materials with wide band gap Gallium Nitride (GaN). Multi-layer MoS2 and β-In2Se3 flakes were exfoliated separately on epitaxial GaN-on-sapphire, followed by fabrication of photodetectors in a lateral inter-digitated metal semiconductor metal geometry with Ti/Au contacts. Devices exhibited distinct steps in SR graph at 365 nm with responsivity value of 127 A W−1 and at ∼685 nm with responsivity value of 33 A W−1 for MoS2/GaN heterostructure. Whereas, similar steps exhibited at 365 nm with responsivity value of 1.6 A W−1 and at ∼850 nm with responsivity value of 0.03 A W−1 in case of β-In2Se3/GaN heterostructure. The wavelength dependent I–V characteristics showed photo-to-dark current ratio of ∼30 at 685 nm in case of MoS2/GaN heterostructure and ratio of ∼2 at 850 nm for β-In2Se3/GaN heterostructure. The reasons which limit the performance of the devices were also investigated using transient analysis and power dependent responsivity analysis. In summary, current work paves the way for futuristic layered-materials/3D heterostructure devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate an InAlN/GaN-on-Si high electron mobility transistor based UV detector with a photo-to-dark current ratio of >107. The Ti/Al/Ni/Au metal stack was evaporated and thermal annealed rapidly for Ohmic contacts to the 2D electron gas (2DEG) at the InAlN/GaN interface, while the channel+barrier was recess etched to a depth of 20nm to pinch-off the 2DEG between Source-Drain pads. A spectral responsivity (SR) of 32.9A/W at 367nm was measured at 5V. A very high photo-to-dark current ratio of >107 was measured at a bias of 20V. The photo-to-dark current ratio at a fixed bias was found to be decreasing with an increase in the recess length of photodetectors. The fabricated devices were found to exhibit a UV-to-visible rejection ratio of >10³ with a low dark currentof < 32pA at 5V. Transient measurements showed rise and fall times in the range of 3-4ms. The gain mechanism was investigated, and carrier lifetimes were estimated which matched well with those reported elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]