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Recent measurements of heavy-ion-induced charge-collection transients are presented. These measurements are possible for the first time because of recent developments in highbandwidth, single-shot measurement technology, and exhibit several significant advantages over conventional (charge-sensitive preamplifier) charge-collection measurements. Heavy-ion induced transient measurements are presented for InGaAs/InAIAs HEMTs, AISb/InAs HEMTs, GaAs HFETs and for SOI NMOS devices, and the significant advantages of this approach are described. Index Terms--AISb/InAs HEMT, charge collection, InGaAs HEMT, laser SEE, single event effects, SOI, transient measurement.

A study of the low-noise characteristics of AlSb/InAs and related high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) in the 6.1-A-lattice-constant material system is presented. The effect of gate bias is reported and comparisons are made to noise performance of several InAs-based HEMTs with different layer structure and channel composition.

Inelastic scattering and transmission of externally injected hot carriers across graphene layers are considered as a function of graphene carrier density, temperature, and surrounding dielectric media. A finite temperature dynamic dielectric function for graphene for an arbitrary momentum q and frequency x is found under the random phase approximation and a generalized scattering lifetime formalism is used to calculate the scattering and transmission rates. Unusual trends in scattering are found, including declining rates as graphene carrier density increases and interband transition excitations, which highlights the difference with out-of-plane as compared to in-plane transport. The results also show strong temperature dependence with a drastic increase in scattering at room temperature. The calculated scattering rate at T = 300K shows a wide variation from 0.2 to 10 fs-1 depending on graphene carrier density, incident carrier momentum, and surrounding dielectrics. The analysis suggests that a transmission rate greater than 0.9 for a carrier with kinetic energy over 1 eV is achievable by carefully controlling the graphene carrier density in conjunction with the use of high-j dielectric materials. Potential applications to electronic and electro-optical devices are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The single-event effects response of three different III-V field-effect transistor technologies (GaAs MESFET, InAIAs/InGaAs HEMT, and AISb/InAs HEMT) is measured for MeV and GeV heavy-ion irradiation. These measurements reveal significant charge enhancement and very slow, microsecond-timescale relaxation times for the GaAs and InAIAs/InGaAs devices, with a much faster recovery from the ionizing event observed for the AISb/InAs HEMTs. Index Terms--AISb, charge collection, GaAs, HEMT, InAIAs, InAs, InGaAs, InP, MESFET, single-event transient, single-event upset.

Time-resolved charge-collection measurements are performed on InAIAs/InGaAs HEMTs with pulsed laser excitation as a function of device bias conditions and the incident laser pulse energy. The results provide clear evidence for the presence of charge-enhancement processes that, in many ways, are analogous to those observed previously for GaAs FET technology. Index Terms--HEMT, InAIAs, InAIAs/InGaAs, InGaAs, InP HEMT, SEU, single-event effects, single-event upset.

The Al(sub x)Ga(sub 1-x)Sb(sub y)As(sub 1-y)/InAs material system, where the lattice constant is near 6.1 angstroms, was used to study high efficiency mobility transistors with only InAs as the channel material. Their better InAs properties and the larger conduction band offset at the AlSb/InAs heterojunction demonstrate their potential for low-voltage, high-speed applications. The devices exhibit a transconductance of 600 mS/mm and an f(sub T) of 120 GHz at V(sub DS) = 0.6 V. With technological improvements, noise figures of 0.3 dB at 4 GHz and 0.6 dB at 10 GHz can be achieved.

The influence of trapping mechanisms on the transconductance of single- and double-recessed InAlAs/InGaAs/InP high electron mobility transistors is studied. There are two mechanisms with different activation energies. One mechanism, which induces negative dispersion, has an activation energy of 0.17 eV and can be found only in the double-recessed structure. The other mechanism, which induces positive dispersion and common to both structures, has a dominant transition with an activation energy of 0.51 eV at low fields.

An examination of the kink effect in InAlAs/InGaAs/InP HEMTs in the frequency and time domains reveals its association with various deep levels in the InAlAs. The sinusoidal excitation below the kink voltage produces two prominent output-resistance-frequency transitions at trap activation energies of 0.18 and 0.56 eV caused by the traps in InAlAs or its interfaces. Excitation above the kink voltage yields a single broad transition at 0.24 eV. Excitation by incremental voltage pulses produces the actual kink signature.

InxGa1-xSb is an attractive candidate for high performance III-V p-metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (pMOSFETs) due to its high bulk hole mobility that can be further enhanced with the use of strain. We fabricate and study InxGa1-xSb-channel pMOSFETs with atomic layer deposition Al2O3 dielectric and self-aligned source/drain formed by ion implantation. The effects of strain and heterostructure design for enhancing transistor performance are studied systematically. Different amounts of biaxial compression are introduced during MBE growth, and the effect of uniaxial strain is studied using wafer-bending experiments. Both surface and buried channel MOSFET designs are investigated. Buried (surface) channel InxGa1-xSb pMOSFETs with peak hole mobility of 910 (620) cm2/Vs and subthreshold swing of 120 mV/decade are demonstrated. Pulsed I-V measurements and low-temperature I-V measurements are used to investigate the physics in transistor characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied the surface cleaning of Sb-based compound semiconductors using HF, NH4OH, and HCl cleans and the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors fabricated subsequently. GaSb, InGaSb, and AlGaSb surfaces are investigated using low-energy radiation from the synchrotron. Capacitance-voltage (C-V) and photoluminescence measurements are carried out on capacitors made with Al2O3 from atomic layer deposition and corroborated with the results from synchrotron spectroscopy. Excellent C-V characteristics with a mid-band-gap interface state density of 3 × 1011/cm2eV are obtained on samples with the HCl clean. This is consistent with the finding that only the HCl acid clean is able to remove the native oxides present on GaSb and InGaSb surfaces, and produce clean and stable surfaces suitable for MOSFET development. Complete removal of AlOx on the AlGaSb surface was not possible using chemical cleaning. Termination of AlGaSb with two monolayers of GaSb is proposed as a solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A numerical technique is developed for the spatial localization of 1/f noise sources in AlSb/InAs high-electron-mobility transistors. The technique is based on the microscopic modeling of 1/f noise using the method of Langevin random sources, in which the noise sources are introduced nonuniformly throughout the device. An efficient algorithm is proposed for the determination of the spatial distribution of these noise sources and local (mesh point) values of the Hooge parameter. The algorithm takes advantage of the linearity between the terminal noise current and the power of the noise sources and uses an optimization approach based on linear least-squares minimizations to find the distribution from the experimental noise characteristics. The density of noise sources in the InAs channel is found to be much larger near the top interface than at the bottom interface. The local values of the Hooge parameter vary from 10-2 at the top to 3×10-4 at the bottom of the channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-resolved charge-collection measurements are performed on AlSb/InAs HEMTs with pulsed laser excitation as a function of device bias conditions and the incident laser pulse energy. The results provide clear evidence for the presence of charge-enhancement processes that, in many ways, are analogous to those observed previously for GaAs FET technology.