Design and demonstration of EID MOS-HEMTs on Si substrate with normally depleted AlGaN/GaN epitaxial layer.

An extrinsic electron induced by a dielectric (EID) AlGaN/GaN MOS high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) on Si substrate was designed and investigated. The EID structure with SiO₂ deposition and subsequent high-temperature annealing, which induces two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) on fully depleted AlGaN/GaN hetero-epitaxial layers with thin AlGaN barrier layer, was applied to access and drift regions in the HEMT. The fabricated HEMT exhibited enhancement-mode operation with a specific on-resistance of 7.6 mΩ cm² and a breakdown voltage of over 1 kV. In addition, electron state analysis using hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that changes in the chemical states of Al and energy level lowering at the SiO₂/AlGaN interface affect the induction of 2DEG in the EID structure. The proposed HEMTs should become a strong candidate for highly reliable high-power switching devices due to the damage-less fabrication without dry etching or fluorine plasma exposure processes on the semiconductor layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]