Huan-Chung Wang

Gate Recessed Quasi-Normally OFF Al 2 O 3 /AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMT With Low Threshold Voltage Hysteresis Using PEALD AlN Interfacial Passivation Layer

In this letter, a gate recessed normally OFF AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMT with low threshold voltage hysteresis using Al2O3/AlN stack gate insulator is presented. The trapping effect of Al2O3/GaN interface was effectively reduced with the insertion of 2-nm AlN thin interfacial passivation layer grown by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition. The device exhibits a threshold voltage of +1.5 V, with current density of 420 mA/mm, an OFF-state breakdown voltage of 600 V, and high ON/OFF drain current ratio of ~109.

GaN MIS-HEMTs With Nitrogen Passivation for Power Device Applications

A GaN MIS-HEMT with nitrogen (N)-passivation for power device applications is demonstrated. In this letter, nitrogen radicals were adopted to recover nitrogen-vacancy-related defects which were formed due to the thermal decomposition and evaporation of nitrogen atoms from GaN surface during high-temperature process. Besides, nitrogen radicals can also remove impurities and reduce surface dangling bonds by forming Ga-N bonds on the SiN/GaN interface. With N-passivation, the device shows high ON/OFF current ratio, steep subthreshold slope, low OFF-state leakage current, high breakdown voltage, and improved dynamic ON-resistance. The device reliability under high-electric field stress was also improved as a result.

Effect of Postdeposition Annealing Temperatures on Electrical Characteristics of Molecular-Beam-Deposited HfO2 on n-InAs/InGaAs Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Capacitors

The electrical characteristics of molecular-beam-deposited HfO2/n-InAs/InGaAs metal–oxide–semiconductor capacitors with different postdeposition annealing (PDA) temperatures (400–550 °C) are investigated. Results show that the sample with the PDA temperature of 500 °C exhibits the best capacitance–voltage (C–V) behavior with small frequency dispersion and small hysteresis. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra show the reduction of the amount of As-related oxides to below the XPS detection level when the PDA temperature is up to 500 °C. As the PDA temperature was increased to above 500 °C, As and In atoms seem to diffuse significantly into HfO2, resulting in the degradation of C–V behavior.

Performance Enhancement of Flip-Chip Packaged AlGaN/GaN HEMTs Using Active-Region Bumps-Induced Piezoelectric Effect

We experimentally investigated the impact of different bump patterns on the output electrical characteristics of flip-chip (FC) bonded AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors in this letter. The bump patterns were designed and intended to provide different levels of tensile stress due to the mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion between the materials. After FC packaging, a maximum increase of 4.3% in saturation current was achieved compared with the bare die when proper arrangement of the bumps in active region was designed. In other words, a 17% improvement has been observed on the optimized bump pattern over the conventional bump pattern. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first letter that investigates the piezoelectric effect induced by FC bumps leading to the enhancement in device characteristics after packaging.

Low Leakage Current GaN MIS-HEMT with SiNx Gate Insulator using N2 Plasma Treatment

In this work, an effective N2 plasma treatment for suppressing leakage current in GaN MIS-HEMT has been demonstrated. We observed an important issue of leakage current from the SiNx/GaN interface. To investigate the leakage current mechanisms, we measured the leakage current from all the possible paths in the device structure, such as gate, mesa isolation, and drain leakage. The current−voltage measurement results reveal a severe leakage path at the SiNx/GaN interface after SiNx deposited on the GaN surface without N2 plasma treatment. By using N2 plasma treatment, we succeed in suppressing the leakage current and effectively improve breakdown voltage. A significant performance improvement of GaN MIS-HEMT with very low leakage current has been achieved through the N2 plasma treatment.