Enhancement-Mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with Low On-Resistance and Low Knee-Voltage

Yong CAI
Yugang ZHOU
Kei May LAU
Kevin J. CHEN

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E89-C    No.7    pp.1025-1030
Publication Date: 2006/07/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1353
DOI: 10.1093/ietele/e89-c.7.1025
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Heterostructure Microelectronics with TWHM2005)
Category: GaN-Based Devices
Keyword: 
enhancement mode,  AlGaN/GaN,  HEMT,  fluoride,  plasma treatment,  threshold voltage,  

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Summary: 
Based on fluoride-based plasma treatment of the gate region in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs and post-gate rapid thermal annealing (RTA), enhancement mode (E-mode) AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with low on-resistance and low knee-voltage were fabricated. The fabricated E-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMT with 1 µm-long gate exhibits a threshold voltage of 0.9 V, a knee-voltage of 2.2 V, a maximum drain current density of 310 mA/mm, a peak gm of 148 mS/mm, a current gain cutoff frequency fT of 10.1 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency fmax of 34.3 GHz. In addition, the fluoride-based plasma treatment was also found to be effective in lowering the gate leakage current, in both forward and reverse bias. Two orders of magnitude reducation in gate leakage current was observed in the fabricated E-mode HEMTs compared to the conventional D-mode HEMTs without fluoride-based plasma treatment.