Hung-Ming Chuang

Characteristics of Pd/InGaP Schottky diodes hydrogen sensors

Pd/InGaP hydrogen sensors based on the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) and metal-semiconductor Schottky diodes have been fabricated and systematically studied. The effects of hydrogen adsorption on device performances such as the current-voltage characteristics, barrier height variation, hydrogen coverage, and heat of adsorption are investigated. The studied devices exhibit very wide hydrogen concentration detection regimes and remarkable hydrogen-sensing properties. Particularly, an extremely low hydrogen concentration of 15 ppm H/sub 2//air at room temperature can be detected. In addition, under the presence of oxide layers in the studied MOS device structure, the enhancements of barrier height and high-temperature operating capability are observed. The initial heat of adsorption for Pd/oxide and Pd/semiconductor interface are calculated as 355 and 65.9 meV/atom, respectively. Furthermore, the considerably short response times are found in studied devices.

Temperature-dependent characteristics of polysilicon and diffused resistors

The temperature-dependent characteristics of polysilicon and diffused resistors have been studied. By using 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, a cobalt salicide process is employed and silicide is formed at the ends of resistors. Based on a simple and useful model, some important parameters of resistors including bulk sheet resistance (R/sub bulk/) and interface resistance (R/sub interface/) are obtained at different temperature. For diffused resistors, the R/sub bulk/ and R/sub interface/ values increase and decrease with increase of temperature, respectively. Positive values of temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) are observed. Furthermore, TCR values decrease with decreasing resistor size. For polysilicon resistors, the R/sub interface/ values decrease with increase of temperature. In addition, negative and positive TCR values of R/sub bulk/ are found in n/sup +/ and p/sup +/ polysilicon resistors, respectively. In conclusion, by comparing the studied diffused and polysilicon resistors, negative trends of TCR are observed when the resistor size decreases.

A new Pd-oxide-Al/sub 0.3/Ga/sub 0.7/As MOS hydrogen sensor

A new and interesting Pd-oxide-Al/sub 0.3/Ga/sub 0.7/As MOS hydrogen sensor has been fabricated and studied. The steady-state and transient responses with different hydrogen concentrations has been measured at various temperatures. Based on the large Schottky barrier height and presence of oxide layer, the studied device exhibits a high hydrogen detection sensitivity and wide temperature operating regime. The studied device exhibits the low-leakage current and obvious current changes when exposed to hydrogen-contained gas. Even at room temperature, a very high hydrogen detection sensitivity of 155.9 is obtained when a 9090 ppm H/sub 2//air gas is introduced. Furthermore, when exposed to hydrogen-contained gas at 95/spl deg/C, both the forward and reverse currents are substantially increased with increased hydrogen concentration. In other words, the studied device can be used as a hydrogen sensor under the applied bidirectional bias. Under the applied voltage of 0.35 V and 9090 ppm H/sub 2//air hydrogen ambient, a fast adsorption response time about 10 s is found. The transient and steady-state characteristics of hydrogen adsorption are also investigated.

Influences of sulfur passivation on temperature-dependent characteristics of an AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs PHEMT

The influences of (NH/sub 4/)/sub 2/S/sub x/ treatment on an AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (PHEMT) are studied and demonstrated. Upon the sulfur passivation, the studied device exhibits better temperature-dependent dc and microwave characteristics. Experimentally, for a 1/spl times/100 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ gate/dimension PHEMT with sulfur passivation, the higher gate/drain breakdown voltage of 36.4 (21.5) V, higher turn-on voltage of 0.994 (0.69) V, lower gate leakage current of 0.6 (571) /spl mu/A/mm at V/sub GD/=-22 V, improved threshold voltage of -1.62 (-1.71) V, higher maximum transconductance of 240 (211) mS/mm with 348 (242) mA/mm broad operating regime (>0.9g/sub m,max/), and lower output conductance of 0.51 (0.53) mS/mm are obtained, respectively, at 300 (510) K. The corresponding unity current gain cutoff frequency f/sub T/ (maximum oscillation frequency f/sub max/) are 22.2 (87.9) and 19.5 (59.3) GHz at 250 and 400 K, respectively, with considerably broad operating regimes (>0.8f/sub T/,f/sub max/) larger than 455 mA/mm. Moreover, the relatively lower variations of device performances over wide temperature range (300/spl sim/510 K) are observed.

Characteristics of a new Pt/oxide/In0.49Ga0.51P hydrogen-sensing Schottky diode

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.

A hydrogen sensing Pd/InGaP metal-semiconductor (MS) Schottky diode hydrogen sensor

An interesting hydrogen sensing Pd/InGaP metal-semiconductor (MS) Schottky diode has been fabricated and studied. Both the steady state and the transient condition of the hydrogen adsorption process are investigated. Even at room temperature, an extremely low hydrogen concentration of 15 ppm H2/air can be detected. In addition, the wide operating temperature range of 250 K of the studied Pd/InGaP hydrogen sensor is found. From experimental results, it is shown that the variation of Schottky barrier height increases with the increase of the operating temperature and hydrogen concentration. As the operation temperature is elevated, the water formation effect is also studied in the quasi-equilibrium region under the transient condition.

A novel Pd/oxide/GaAs metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MISFET) hydrogen sensor

A novel and high-performance Pd/oxide/GaAs hydrogen sensor based on a metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MISFET) is fabricated and studied. In the presence of the interfacial oxide, high sensitivity and significant increase in output drain current are observed. In the presence of hydrogen, a 2×200 µm2 gate dimension device shows good dc characteristics including high turn-on voltage, an obvious variation of drain current and a short response time. In addition, under the applied voltage of -4 V and 537 ppm hydrogen in air, a very high sensitivity of 9473 is obtained. This performance shows that the device studied has a good potential for high-speed and high-sensitivity hydrogen sensor and MISFET integrated circuit applications.

Characterization of polysilicon resistors in sub-0.25 μm CMOS ULSI applications

The characteristics of polysilicon resistors in sub-0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS ULSI applications have been studied. Based on the presented sub-0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS borderless contact, both n/sup +/ and p/sup +/ polysilicon resistors with Ti- and Co-salicide self-aligned process are used at the ends of each resistor. A simple and useful model is proposed to analyze and calculate the essential parameters of polysilicon resistors including electrical delta W(/spl Delta/W), interface resistance R/sub interface/, and pure sheet resistance R/sub pure/. This approach can substantially help engineers in designing and fabricating the precise polysilicon resistors in sub-0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS technology.

DC characterization of an InP-InGaAs tunneling emitter bipolar transistor (TEBT)

The dc performances of a novel InP-InGaAs tunneling emitter bipolar transistor (TEBT) are studied and demonstrated. The studied device can be operated under an extremely wide collector current regime larger than 11 decades in magnitude (10/sup -12/ to 10/sup -1/ A). A current gain of 3 is obtained even operated at an ultralow collector current of 3.9/spl times/10/sup -12/ A (1.56 /spl times/10/sup -7/ A/cm/sup 2/). The common-emitter and common-base breakdown voltages of the studied device are higher than 2 and 5 V, respectively. Furthermore, a very low collector-emitter offset voltage of 40 mV is found. The temperature-dependent dc characteristics of the TEBT are measured and studied. Consequentially, based on experimental results, the studied device provides the promise for low-power electronics applications.

Comprehensive study of InGaP/AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors with different doping concentrations of AlxGa1-xAs graded layers

The performances of InGaP/AlxGa1−xAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) with different doping concentrations of AlxGa1−xAs graded layers are theoretically studied. The use of the AlxGa1−xAs graded layer plays a key role in affecting the direct current and radio frequency performances of the studied HBTs. It is found that the studied devices with suitable doping concentrations of AlxGa1−xAs graded layers exhibit lower offset voltages, saturation voltages, and base and collector current ideality factors. Furthermore, due to the use of proper doping concentrations of AlxGa1−xAs graded layers, the studied devices show high values of the unity current gain cut-off frequency (fT) and maximum oscillation frequency (fmax). It is known that, from the theoretical analysis, the appropriate doping concentration of the AlxGa1−xAs graded layer is 1 × 1016 to 1 × 1018 cm−3. Consequently, this work is promising for device engineers to design high-performance HBT structures.