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The interesting hydrogen sensing characteristics of two transistors with an Al 0.24 Ga 0.76 As (device A) and In 0.49 Ga 0.51 P (device B) Schottky layer are demonstrated and studied. Experimentally, device A shows a lower hydrogen detection limit of 4.3 ppm H 2 /air, a higher current variation of 7.79 mA and a shorter adsorption time of 10.95 s in a 9970 ppm H 2 /air at room temperature. On the other hand, device B exhibits more stable hydrogen-sensing characteristics at high temperatures. Even at a low concentration of 14 ppm H 2 /air the hydrogen sensing properties of device B can be obtained as the temperature increases from 30 to 160 °C. Because the Al 0.24 Ga 0.76 As and In 0.49 Ga 0.51 P materials are lattice-matched to the GaAs substrate, the studied devices can be integrated as sensor arrays to obtain superior hydrogen sensing characteristics including higher sensing signals, lower detection limit, shorter response time, and widespread detection and temperature regimes.

An interesting hydrogen sensor based on a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) device with a Pd–oxide–In0.49Ga0.51P gate structure is fabricated and demonstrated. The hydrogen sensing characteristics including hydrogen detection sensitivity and transient responses of the studied device under different hydrogen concentrations and temperature are measured and studied. The hydrogen detection sensitivity is related to a change in the contact potential at the Pd/insulator interface. The kinetic and thermodynamic properties of hydrogen adsorption are also studied. Experimentally, good hydrogen detection sensitivities, large magnitude of current variations (3.96 mA in 9970 ppm H2/air gas at room temperature) and shorter absorption response time (22 s in 9970 ppm H2/air gas at room temperature) are obtained for a 1.4 μm × 100 μm gate dimension device. Therefore, the studied device provides a promise for high-performance solid-state hydrogen sensor, integrated circuit (IC) and micro electro-mechanical system (MEMS) applications.

An interesting hydrogen sensor based on a Pt–oxide–Al0.3Ga0.7As MOS structure is fabricated and studied. The transient response and hydrogen detection sensitivity of the studied device under different hydrogen concentrations, temperature and applied voltages are measured. In addition, the kinetic and thermodynamic properties of hydrogen adsorption are studied and discussed. Experimentally, the studied device shows significant advantages of extremely low hydrogen concentration (15 ppm H2/air) detection capability, high hydrogen detection sensitivity (20 in 9090 ppm H2/air gas), short response time, wide temperature operating regime and good hydrogen detection ability under bi-directional applied bias. Based on these good properties, therefore, the studied device provides a promise for high-performance solid-state hydrogen sensor applications.

A new Pt/oxide/InGaP metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) Schottky diode has been fabricated and studied. Upon exposure to hydrogen, the steady-state and transient responses under different hydrogen concentrations and temperatures are measured. Due to the inherent property of InGaP material, e.g. the wide energy gap, a wide hydrogen-sensing range as large as 300 K (from room temperature to 600 K) is obtained. Even at room temperature, a very high sensitivity over 500% for 9090 ppm hydrogen in air is acquired. Furthermore, the measured absorption response time is less than 1 s at the applied voltage of 0.7 V and 9090 ppm hydrogen concentration atmosphere condition. Simultaneously, based on the analysis of the variation of barrier height and hydrogen coverage, the characteristics of the studied Pt/oxide/InGaP MOS Schottky diode is in good agreement with the Lundstrom isotherm.

In this work, the off-state breakdown characteristics of two different types InGaP-based high-barrier gate heterostructure field-effect transistors are studied and demonstrated. These devices have different high-barrier gate structures, e.g. the i-InGaP layer for device A and n + - GaAs/p + -InGaP/n-GaAs camel-like structure for device B. The wide-gap InGaP layer is used to improve the breakdown characteristics. Experimentally, the studied devices show high off-state breakdown characteristics even at high temperature operation regime. This indicates that the studied devices are suitable for high-power and high-temperature applications. In addition, the off-state breakdown mechanisms are different for device A and B. For device A, off-state breakdown characteristics is only gate dominated at the temperature regime from 30 to 180 ∘ C. For device B, off-state breakdown characteristics are gate and channel dominated at 30 ∘ C and only gate dominated within 150 to 210 ∘ C.

A novel photonic-sensitive InAlGaAs/InP negative-differential-resistance heterojunction bipolar transistor (NDR-HBT) is fabricated and demonstrated. Due to the appropriately designed narrow base width and the employment of a δ -doped sheet at the emitter–base (E–B ) heterojunction, the base resistance effect results in the significant NDR phenomenon. In addition, the experimental results show that the device studied is very sensitive to the applied light source. The N-shaped NDR phenomena are clearly observed under illumination. This phenomenon is attributed to the base resistance and barrier lowering effect resulting from holes induced by the applied light source.

In this paper, we will demonstrate two new InGaAs-GaAs pseudomorphic heterostructure transistors prepared by MOVPE technology, i.e. InGaAs-GaAs graded-concentration doping-channel MIS-like field effect transistors (FET) and heterostructure-emitter and heterostructure-base (InGaAs-GaAs) transistors (HEHBT). For the doping-channel MIS-like FET, the graded In 0.15 Ga 0.85 As doping-channel structure is employed as the active channel. For a 0.8 × 100 μ m 2 gate device, a breakdown voltage of 15 V, a maximum transconductance of 200 mS/mm, and a maximum drain saturation current of 735 mA/mm are obtained. For the HEHBT, the confinement effect for holes is enhanced owing to the presence of GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells. Thus, the emitter injection efficiency is increased and a high current gain can be obtained. Also, due to the lower surface recombination velocity of InGaAs base layers, the potential spike of the emitter-base (E-B) junction can be reduced significantly. This can provide a lower collector-emitter offset voltage. For an emitter area of 4.9 × 10 −5 cm 2 , the common emitter current gain of 120 and the collector-emitter offset voltage of 100 mV are obtained.