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Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2015., Cataloged from PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (pages 120-126)., Gallium Nitride (GaN) based high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are very promising for applications requiring high power and high operating frequencies due to its intrinsic material properties like the high electron mobility, large critical electric field and large carrier concentration. For power switching applications, it is necessary to lower gate leakage by introducing a gate insulator between the gate metal and the AIGaN barrier. This thesis focuses on studying the impact of processing conditions on the quality of the gate stack of AIGaN/GaN based MISHEMTs. First, the role of mobile ions like sodium in impacting the threshold voltage of AIGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs was studied. Characterization techniques like bias temperature stress (BTS) that were traditionally used for characterizing mobile ions in SiO₂/Si capacitors were adapted for AIGaN/GaN MISHEMTs. Next, the impact of fabricating Al₂O₃/AIGaN/GaN MISHEMTs by using a CMOS compatible gate first process flow vs an Au-contact based, liftoff oriented process flow was evaluated. The differences between capacitors and transistors fabricated by different process flows were evaluated by a combination of high bias capacitance-voltage (CV) and transient current-voltage (IV) measurements. Organic contamination from the ohmic first process flow was attributed as being the key cause of the superior interface for the AIGaN/GaN MISHEMT processed using a gate first process flow. Finally, the gate first process flow was used to fabricate additional AIGaN/GaN MISHEMTS in order to look at the impact of atomic layer deposition (ALD) nucleation layers, the AIN interlayer, annealing conditions and AIGaN oxidation on the quality of the gate stack., by Omair I. Saadat., Ph. D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2010., Cataloged from PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-73)., This thesis describes work done towards realizing self-aligned AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). Self-aligned transistors are important for improving the frequency of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs by reducing source and drain access resistance. The eventual fabrication of self-aligned transistors required the development of two different technologies that are described in this thesis. First, gate stacks that can survive the high temperature anneal necessary for forming ohmic contacts were demonstrated. Devices with three different gate stacks, composed of tungsten and a high-k dielectrics like HfO₂, A1₂O₃ and HfO₂/Ga₂O₃, were studied and compared with respect to DC transistor measurements, capacitor measurements and pulsed-IV measurements. Not only did these transistors survive the ohmic anneal but they showed superior performance with respect to transconductance, current density and dispersion than transistors with standard gates. Following the development of the gate stack, silicide-like technology where thin Ti-based films are deposited and annealed on the access regions to reduce access resistance was developed. Depositing and annealing thin Ti films were shown to reduce the sheet resistance by up to 30%. Finally, preliminary results regarding the fabrication of self-aligned transistors by using these gate stacks and the Ti-based access region metallization are reported in this thesis., by Omair I. Saadat., S.M.