Search

The lack of p-type doping has impeded the development of vertical gallium oxide (Ga2O3) devices. Current blocking layers (CBLs) using implanted deep acceptors have been used to demonstrate vertical devices. This paper presents a pioneering demonstration of in situ Mg-doped β-Ga2O3 CBLs grown using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition. The Mg-doping density during growth was calibrated by quantitative secondary ion mass spectroscopy. Electrical test structures were designed with in situ Mg doped layers with various targeted Mg doping concentrations. The effectiveness of the CBL is characterized by using temperature-dependent current–voltage measurements using n-Mg-doped-n structures, providing crucial insight into the underlying mechanisms. Pulsed measurements show similar blocking characteristics as DC. To further validate the experimental results, a TCAD simulation is performed, and the electrically active effective doping is found to be dependent on the Mg-doping density, offering an alternate perspective on the optimization of CBL performance. Breakdown measurements show a peak 4 MV/cm field strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the thermal stability and degradation mechanism of β-Ga2O3 metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) is crucial for their high-power electronics applications. This work examines the high temperature performance of the junctionless lateral β-Ga2O3 FinFET grown on a native β-Ga2O3 substrate, fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching with Al2O3 gate oxide and Ti/Au gate metal. The thermal exposure effect on threshold voltage (Vth), subthreshold swing (SS), hysteresis, and specific on-resistance (Ron,sp), as a function of temperature up to 298 °C, is measured and analyzed. SS and Ron,sp increased with increasing temperatures, similar to the planar MOSFETs, while a more severe negative shift of Vth was observed for the high aspect-ratio FinFETs here. Despite employing a much thicker epilayer (∼2 μm) for the channel, the high temperature performance of Ion/Ioff ratios and SS of the FinFET in this work remains comparable to that of the planar β-Ga2O3 MOSFETs reported using epilayers ∼10–30× thinner. This work paves the way for further investigation into the stability and promise of β-Ga2O3 FinFETs compared to their planar counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Letter, the role of background carbon in metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) β-Ga2O3 growth using trimethylgallium (TMGa) as the Ga precursor was investigated. The quantitative C and H incorporations in MOCVD β-Ga2O3 thin films grown at different growth rates and temperatures were measured via quantitative secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). The SIMS results revealed both [C] and [H] increase as the TMGa molar flow rate/growth rate increases or growth temperature decreases. The intentional Si incorporation in MOCVD β-Ga2O3 thin films decreases as the growth rate increases or the growth temperature decreases. For films grown at relatively fast growth rates (GRs) (TMGa > 58 μmol/min, GR > 2.8 μm/h) or relatively low temperature (<950 °C), the [C] increases faster than that of the [H]. The experimental results from this study demonstrate the previously predicted theory—H can effectively passivate the compensation effect of C in n-type β-Ga2O3. The extracted net doping concentration from quantitative SIMS {[Si]-([C]-[H])} agrees well with the free carrier concentration measured from Hall measurement. The revealing of the role of C compensation in MOCVD β-Ga2O3 and the effect of H incorporation will provide guidance on designing material synthesis for targeted device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Letter reports a high performance β -Ga2O3 thin channel MOSFET with T gate and degenerately doped (n++) source/drain contacts regrown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. Highly scaled T-gate with a gate length of 160–200 nm was fabricated to achieve enhanced RF performance and passivated with 200 nm silicon nitride. Peak drain current (ID,MAX) of 285 mA/mm and peak transconductance (gm) of 52 mS/mm were measured at 10 V drain bias with 23.5 Ω mm on resistance (RON). Metal/n++ contact resistance of 0.078 Ω mm was extracted from transfer length measurements. RON is possibly dominated by interface resistance between channel and highly doped n++ regrown layer. A gate-to-drain breakdown voltage of 192 V is measured for LGD = 355 nm resulting in average breakdown field (EAVG) of 5.4 MV/cm. This EAVG is the highest reported among all sub-micron gate length lateral FETs. Current gain cut off frequency (fT) of 11 GHz and record power gain cut off frequency (fMAX) of approximately 48 GHz were extracted from small signal measurements. fT is limited by DC-RF dispersion due to interface traps which needs further investigation. The fT·VBR product is 2.112 THz V for 192 V breakdown voltage. Device surpasses the switching figure of merit of Silicon and competitive with mature wide bandgap devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In situ etching using Ga flux in an ultra-high vacuum environment like molecular beam epitaxy is introduced as a method to make high aspect ratio three-dimensional (3D) structures in β -Ga2O3. Etching of β -Ga2O3 due to excess Ga adatoms on the epilayer surface had been viewed as non-ideal for epitaxial growth especially since it results in plateauing and lowering of the growth rate. In this study, we use this well-known reaction from epitaxial growth to intentionally etch β -Ga2O3. We demonstrate etch rate ranging from 2.9 to 30 nm/min with the highest reported etch rate being only limited by the highest Ga flux used. Patterned in situ etching is also demonstrated and used to study the effect of fin orientation on the sidewall profiles and dopant (Si) segregation on the etched surface. Using in situ Ga etching, we also demonstrate 150 nm wide fins and 200 nm wide nanopillars with high aspect ratio. This etching method could enable future development of highly scaled vertical and lateral 3D devices in β -Ga2O3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The valence and conduction band offsets at (100) β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/β-Ga2O3 heterointerfaces with the increasing Al composition are determined via x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The (100) β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films with the Al composition of 0.10 < x < 0.52 are grown on (100) β-Ga2O3 substrates by the metalorganic chemical vapor deposition method. By examining the onset of inelastic energy loss in core-level atomic spectra, the bandgaps of β-Ga2O3 and β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 alloys with different Al compositions are measured from 4.83 ± 0.12 eV (x = 0) to 5.85 ± 0.08 eV (x = 0.52). The valence band offsets are determined to be −0.06 ± 0.06 eV (x = 0.10), −0.11 ± 0.06 eV (x = 0.33), and −0.19 ± 0.06 eV (x = 0.52). The conduction band offsets of 0.34 ± 0.17 eV (x = 0.10), 0.62 ± 0.17 eV (x = 0.33), and 1.21 ± 0.16 eV (x = 0.52) are determined from the extracted bandgaps of β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 alloys. The determined band alignments at β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/β-Ga2O3 interfaces reveal the formation of type-II (staggered gap) heterojunctions for all Al compositions investigated. The bowing parameters obtained from the quadratic fitting of both conduction band minimum and valence band maximum values are estimated to be 1.25 eV and 0.005 eV, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films are grown on ( 2 ¯ 01) β-Ga2O3 substrates via metal organic chemical vapor deposition to investigate the solubility of Al in β-phase Ga2O3. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra reveal crystalline quality ( 2 ¯ 01) β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films with Al compositions up to 48%. The Al compositions are further confirmed by high resolution x-ray spectroscopy measurements and energy-dispersive x-ray spectra (EDS) mapping. The bandgap energies extracted from XPS spectra range between 5.20 ± 0.06 eV and 5.72 ± 0.08 eV for x = 21%–48%. The surface morphology evaluated by both scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy shows elongated features with granules along the [010] direction, which are suppressed with the increasing Al content. A systematic growth study through tuning growth parameters indicates that the chamber pressure plays an important role in both surface morphology and Al incorporation. Material characterization via high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and STEM-EDS reveals Al fluctuations in the sample with the 48% Al composition. Atomic resolution STEM imaging and XRD spectra for ( 2 ¯ 01) β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/Ga2O3 superlattice structures confirm that the periodicity of the β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/Ga2O3 sub-layers is well maintained with high-Al compositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigated the evolution of microstructural chemistry of metal organic chemical vapor deposition grown (010) (AlxGa1x)2O3 films with varying Al contents, x 0.10-1.0, using atom probe tomography (APT). At a low Al content (x 0.25), the films are homogeneous, where layer inhomogeneity appears at a high Al content (x>0.25). Further increasing the Al content up to x 0.60 results in a homogeneous (AlxGa1x)2O3 layer. This change in microstructural features was linked to the phase transformation of (AlxGa1x)2O3 using a manifold learning approach to capture the governing features hidden in the data dimensionality. Combining APT to unsupervised machine learning enables APT to be an independent material characterization tool to investigate the microstructure, chemical composition, and phase related information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Letter reports a high performance β -Ga2O3 thin channel MOSFET with T gate and degenerately doped (n++) source/drain contacts regrown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. Highly scaled T-gate with a gate length of 160–200 nm was fabricated to achieve enhanced RF performance and passivated with 200 nm silicon nitride. Peak drain current (ID,MAX) of 285 mA/mm and peak transconductance (gm) of 52 mS/mm were measured at 10 V drain bias with 23.5 Ω mm on resistance (RON). Metal/n++ contact resistance of 0.078 Ω mm was extracted from transfer length measurements. RON is possibly dominated by interface resistance between channel and highly doped n++ regrown layer. A gate-to-drain breakdown voltage of 192 V is measured for LGD = 355 nm resulting in average breakdown field (EAVG) of 5.4 MV/cm. This EAVG is the highest reported among all sub-micron gate length lateral FETs. Current gain cut off frequency (fT) of 11 GHz and record power gain cut off frequency (fMAX) of approximately 48 GHz were extracted from small signal measurements. fT is limited by DC-RF dispersion due to interface traps which needs further investigation. The fT·VBR product is 2.112 THz V for 192 V breakdown voltage. Device surpasses the switching figure of merit of Silicon and competitive with mature wide bandgap devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigated the evolution of microstructural chemistry of metal organic chemical vapor deposition grown (010) (AlxGa1x)2O3 films with varying Al contents, x 0.10-1.0, using atom probe tomography (APT). At a low Al content (x 0.25), the films are homogeneous, where layer inhomogeneity appears at a high Al content (x>0.25). Further increasing the Al content up to x 0.60 results in a homogeneous (AlxGa1x)2O3 layer. This change in microstructural features was linked to the phase transformation of (AlxGa1x)2O3 using a manifold learning approach to capture the governing features hidden in the data dimensionality. Combining APT to unsupervised machine learning enables APT to be an independent material characterization tool to investigate the microstructure, chemical composition, and phase related information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]