L. McCarthy

AlGaN/GaN heterojunction bipolar transistor

We demonstrate the first GaN bipolar transistor. An AlGaN/GaN HBT structure was grown by MOCVD on c-plane sapphire substrate. The emitter was grown with an Al/sub 0.1/Ga/sub 0.9/N barrier to increase the emitter injection efficiency. Cl/sub 2/ RIE was used to pattern the emitter mesa, and selectively regrown base contact pads were implemented to reduce a contact barrier associated with RIE etch damage to the base surface. The current gain of the devices was measured to be as high as three with a base width of 200 nm. DC transistor characteristics were measured to 30 V V/sub CE/ in the common emitter configuration, with an offset voltage of 5 V. A gummel plot and base contact characteristics are also presented.

Gallium nitride based transistors

An overview is presented of progress in GaN electronic devices along with recent results from work at UCSB. From 1995 to 2001, the power performance of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) improved from 1.1 to 11 W mm-1, respectively. The disadvantage of the low thermal conductivity of the sapphire substrate was mitigated by flip-chip bonding onto AlN substrates, yielding large periphery devices with an output power of 7.6 W. A variety of HEMT amplifier circuits have been demonstrated. The first AlGaN/GaN heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) was demonstrated in 1998, with a current gain of about 3. By developing the technique of emitter regrowth, a current gain of 10 was achieved in both GaN BJTs and AlGaN/GaN HBTs. A common emitter current gain cutoff frequency of 2 GHz was measured. Critical issues involved in the growth of high quality AlGaN/(AlN)/GaN heterostructures and GaN:Mg by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and the device fabrication are discussed.

GaN HBT: toward an RF device

This paper reviews efforts to develop growth and fabrication technology for the GaN HBT. Conventional devices are grown by plasma assisted MBE on MOCVD GaN templates on sapphire. HBTs were fabricated on LEO material identifying threading dislocations as the primary source of collector-emitter leakage which was reduced by four orders of magnitude for devices on nondislocated material. Base doping studies show that the mechanism of this leakage is localized punch-through caused by compensation near the dislocation. High contact and lateral resistance in the base cause large parasitic common emitter offset voltages (from 1 to 5 V) in GaN HBTs. The effect of this voltage drop on common emitter characteristics is discussed. The combination of this voltage drop and the emitter collector leakage make Gummel and common base characteristics unreliable without verification with common emitter characteristics. The selectively regrown emitter bipolar transistor is presented with a DC current gain of 6 and early voltage greater than 400 V. The transistor operated to voltages over 70 V. This device design reduces base contact resistance, and circumvented difficulties associated with the emitter mesa etch process. The Mg memory effect in MOCVD grown GaN HBTs is discussed, and MBE grown device layers are shown to produce sharp doping profiles. The low current gain of these devices is discussed, and an HBT with a compositionally graded base is presented, as well as simulations predicting further current gain improvements with base grading.

Nonalloyed ohmic contacts in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs by ion implantation with reduced activation annealing temperature

This letter reports AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors with capless activation annealing of implanted Si for nonalloyed ohmic contacts. Source and drain areas were implanted with an Si dose of 1/spl times/10/sup 16/ cm/sup -2/ and were activated at /spl sim/1260/spl deg/C in a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition system in ammonia and nitrogen at atmospheric pressure. Nonalloyed ohmic contacts to ion-implanted devices showed a contact resistance of 0.96 /spl Omega//spl middot/mm to the channel. An output power density of 5 W/mm was measured at 4 GHz, with 58% power-added efficiency and a gain of 11.7 dB at a drain bias of 30 V.

Origin of etch delay time in Cl2 dry etching of AlGaN/GaN structures

The etch delay time commonly found during dry etching of AlGaN and GaN has been experimentally proven to be due to the presence of hard–to–etch surface oxides. A BCl3 deoxidizing plasma, followed by a Cl2 etching plasma, was found to give dead-time-free aluminum-mole-fraction-independent etch rates. No selectivity between GaN and AlGaN has been observed up to an aluminum mole fraction of 35%. The aluminum-mole-fraction-dependent etch rates commonly reported in literature have been related to the different dead-times associated with dissimilar surface oxides, disproving the more common explanations in terms of the higher binding energy of AlN compared to GaN and/or the lower volatility of AlClx compared to GaClx.

Low nonalloyed Ohmic contact resistance to nitride high electron mobility transistors using N-face growth

Nonalloyed Ohmic contacts on Ga-face n+-GaN∕AlGaN∕GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structures typically have significant contact resistance to the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) due to the AlGaN barrier. By growing the HEMT structure inverted on the N-face, electrons from the contacts were able to access the 2DEG without going through an AlGaN layer. A low contact resistance of 0.16Ωmm and specific contact resistivity of 5.5×10−7Ωcm2 were achieved without contact annealing on the inverted HEMT structure.

Effect of ohmic contacts on buffer leakage of GaN transistors

The effect of ohmic contacts on the buffer leakage of GaN transistors is presented. The buffer leakage for AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors and GaN MESFETs grown on the same underlying buffer was observed to be different. Controlled experiments show that the increased buffer leakage is due to the nature of the alloyed ohmic contacts and can be minimized if they are screened by the Si doping or by the two-dimensional electron gas.

Effect of threading dislocations on AlGaN/GaN heterojunction bipolar transistors

We demonstrate an AlGaN/GaN heterojunction bipolar transistor on a substrate grown using the lateral epitaxial overgrowth (LEO) technique. Common emitter characteristics show a current gain of 3. Active layers were grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy on metal–organic chemical-vapor-deposition-grown templates on sapphire. The collector–emitter leakage mechanism in these devices is found to be local punch-through associated with base layer compensation near the dislocations. LEO wing regions (nondislocated) were found to reduce the emitter–collector leakage by four orders of magnitude over adjacent window regions which had a dislocation density of 108 cm−2. Varying the doping profile through the base confirms that the mechanism for leakage is local punch-through due to compensation. This compensation mechanism is consistent with simulations which assume a donor-state line density of 107 cm−1. The implications of the emitter–collector leakage for dc device characterization are also discussed.

High-Breakdown Enhancement-Mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with Integrated Slant Field-Plate

Enhancement-mode (E-mode) AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with integrated slant field-plates were developed for high breakdown voltage (VBD) and low on-resistance (RON). Combination of the self-aligned slant field-plate technology for high VBD and self-aligned CF4 plasma treatment for E-mode operation yielded high-performance device with a VBD of 1400V, which is one of the highest reported VBD value among GaN-based E-mode HEMTs. Using the active area of the device, the RON was calculated to be below 3mOmegamiddotcm2

High voltage operation (>80 V) of GaN bipolar junction transistors with low leakage

We have demonstrated the high voltage operation of n-p-n GaN bipolar junction transistors using regrown emitters. Devices were grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on sapphire substrates. The n-type emitter was grown selectively on a base-collector p-n junction diode using a dielectric mask. A thin base (1000 A) was used to increase the current gain over our previous result with a regrown emitter [J. B. Limb, L. McCarthy, P. Kozodoy, H. Xing, J. Ibbetson, Y. Smorchkova, S. P. DenBaars, and U. K. Mishra, Electron. Lett. 35, 19 (1999)]. The base contacts were better than expected despite the use of a thin base. Common emitter operation showing a voltage operation of over 80 V with negligible leakage has been demonstrated. Room temperature current gain was ∼3 corresponding to a current transfer ratio of ∼0.75. This results in a calculated minority carrier lifetime of about 80 pS in the base.