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In this paper, the ohmic contact mechanism and gate electrostatic control of a deep-recessed ohmic contact structure for multi-channel Al0.3Ga0.7N/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) is investigated. A transmission electron microscope and an energy dispersive spectrum are utilized to investigate the ohmic contact interface mechanism. Due to a reduction of source/drain parasitic resistances and simultaneous connection of five channels by using deep-recessed ohmic contact, a large maximum drain current density and a distinct five hump feature of ultra-wider trans-conductance are achieved. More importantly, it is revealed that the downward expansion of the gate potential for the deep-recessed ohmic contact structure is much deeper than that for conventional devices. This characteristic leads to a remarkable reduction in subthreshold swing (SS) and off-state leakage, indicating an ultra-wide and high trans-conductance profile. The fabricated devices show a lower off-state drain leakage, a lower SS, and a wider gate voltage swing (40 V). Due to an enhancement of gate electrostatic control, the current collapse and electrical reliability characteristics of multi-channel Al0.3Ga0.7N/GaN HEMTs with deep-recessed ohmic contact also improve. The results presented here indicate that the multi-channel device has great potential for high current and wide bandwidth applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work reports an AlN/GaN/InGaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) with a steep subthreshold swing (SS) of sub-60 mV/dec utilizing a coupling-channel architecture. The fabricated transistors show a negligible hysteresis, a SS of 39 mV/dec, a large gate voltage swing of >4.2 V, and achieving an excellent quality factor Q = gm/SS of 6.3 μS-dec/μm-mV. The negative differential resistance effect was found in the subthreshold region in the gate current–voltage (Ig–VGS) curve. The hot carrier transfer mechanism that occurred in the turn-on/pinch-off progress of the CC-HEMT under the dual-directional sweep, proved by the VDS- and Lg-dependent bi-directional transfer I–V characteristics, can be responsible for these excellent device performances. This work is believed to encourage further study of the AlN/GaN platform to power the future group III-nitrides CMOS technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, ultrathin barrier (∼6 nm) AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) with in situ SiN gate dielectric and slant-field plate (SFP) T-gates were fabricated and analyzed. Since the proposed scheme of gate dielectric and SFP effectively suppresses the gate leakage and alleviates the peak electric field (E-field) around gate region, the maximum breakdown voltage (VBK) was improved to 92 V, which is 54 V higher than that of the conventional device. The fabricated ultrathin AlGaN/GaN HEMT with 60-nm SFP-T-gate exhibited the peak fT of 177 GHz and peak fmax of 393 GHz, yielding high figure-of-merits of fT · VBK = 16 THz V and fmax·VBK = 36 THz V. Moreover, load-pull measurements at 30 GHz reveal that these devices deliver output power density (Pout) of 4.6 W/mm at Vds = 20 V and high power-added efficiency up to 52.5% at Vds = 10 V. Essentially, the experimental results indicate that the employment of SFP and in situ SiN gate dielectric is an attractive approach to balance the breakdown and speed for millimeter wave devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, high-performance millimeter-wave AlGaN/GaN structures for high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are presented using a Si-rich SiN passivation layer. The analysis of transient and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements revealed that the presence of the Si-rich SiN layer leads to a decrease in the deep-level surface traps by mitigating the formation of Ga–O bonds. This results in a suppressed current collapse from 11% to 5% as well as a decreased knee voltage (Vknee). The current gain cutoff frequency and the maximum oscillation frequency of the devices with the Si-rich SiN layer exhibit the values of 74 and 140 GHz, respectively. Moreover, load-pull measurements at 30 GHz show that the devices containing the Si-rich SiN deliver excellent output power density of 8.7 W/mm at Vds = 28 V and high power-added efficiency up to 48% at Vds = 10 V. The enhanced power performance of HEMTs using Si-rich SiN interlayer passivation is attributed to the reduced Vknee, the suppressed current collapse, and the improved drain current. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]