Zhang Baoshun

Enhancement-Mode InAlN/GaN MISHEMT with Low Gate Leakage Current

We report an enhancement-mode InAlN/GaN MISHEMT with a low gate leakage current by a thermal oxidation technique under gate. The off-state source-drain current density is as low as ~10−7 A/mm at VGS = 0 V and VDS = 5 V. The threshold voltage is measured to be +0.8 V by linear extrapolation from the transfer characteristics. The E-mode device exhibits a peak transconductance of 179 mS/mm at a gate bias of 3.4 V. A low reverse gate leakage current density of 4.9 × 10−7 A/mm is measured at VGS = −15 V.

Dependence of InGaN solar cell performance on polarization-induced electric field and carrier lifetime

The effects of Mg-induced net acceptor doping concentration and carrier lifetime on the performance of a p—i—n InGaN solar cell are investigated. It is found that the electric field induced by spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization in the i-region could be totally shielded when the Mg-induced net acceptor doping concentration is sufficiently high. The polarization-induced potential barriers are reduced and the short circuit current density is remarkably increased from 0.21 mA/cm2 to 0.95 mA/cm2 by elevating the Mg doping concentration. The carrier lifetime determined by defect density of i-InGaN also plays an important role in determining the photovoltaic properties of solar cell. The short circuit current density severely degrades, and the performance of InGaN solar cell becomes more sensitive to the polarization when carrier lifetime is lower than the transit time. This study demonstrates that the crystal quality of InGaN absorption layer is one of the most important challenges in realizing high efficiency InGaN solar cells.

Effects of Ag on Electrical Properties of Ag/Ni/p-GaN Ohmic Contact

Properties of the Ag/Ni/p-GaN structure at different temperatures are studied by Auger electron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and high resolution x-ray diffraction. The effect of Ag in ohmic contact on the crystalline quality is investigated and the optimized value of annealing temperature is reported. The lowest specific contact resistance of 2.5 x 10(-4) Omega cm(2) is obtained at annealing temperature of 550 degrees C.

Reduction of Dislocations in GaN Epilayer Grown on Si (111) Substrates using a GaN Intermedial Layer

GaN intermedial layers grown under different pressures are inserted between GaN epilayers and AlN/Si(111) substrates. In situ optical reflectivity measurements show that a transition from the three-dimensional (3D) mode to the 2D one occurs during the GaN epilayer growth when a higher growth pressure is used during the preceding GaN intermedial layer growth, and an improvement of the crystalline quality of GaN epilayer will be made. Combining the in situ reflectivity and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements, it is suggested that the lateral growth at the transition of growth mode is favourable for bending of dislocation lines, thus reducing the density of threading dislocations in the epilayer.

Extraction of terahertz emission from a grating-coupled high-electron-mobility transistor

In a grating-coupled high-electron-mobility transistor, weak terahertz emission with wavelength around 400 μm was observed by using a Fourier-transform spectrometer. The absolute terahertz emission power was extracted from a strong background blackbody emission by using a modulation technique. The power of terahertz emission is proportional to the drain—source current, while the power of blackbody emission has a distinct relation with the electrical power. The dependence on the drain—source bias and the gate voltage suggests that the terahertz emission is induced by accelerated electrons interacting with the grating.

Characterization of a room temperature terahertz detector based on a GaN/AlGaN HEMT

We report on the characterization of a room temperature terahertz detector based on a GaN/AlGaN high electron mobility transistor integrated with three patch antennas. Experimental results prove that both horizontal and perpendicular electric fields are induced in the electron channel. A photocurrent is generated when the electron channel is strongly modulated by the gate voltage. Despite the large channel length and gate-source/drain distance, significant horizontal and perpendicular fields are achieved. The device is well described by the self-mixing of terahertz fields in the electron channel. The noise-equivalent power and responsivity are estimated to be and 3 mA=W at 292 K, respectively. No decrease in responsivity is observed up to a modulation frequency of 5 kHz. The detector performance can be further improved by engineering the source-gate-drain geometry to enhance the nonlinearity.

Enhancement-Mode AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors Using a Nano-Channel Array Structure

A nano-channel array (NCA) structure is applied to realize enhancement-mode (E-mode) AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). The fabricated NCA-HEMT, consisting of 1000 channels connected in parallel with a channel width of 64 nm, shows a threshold voltage of 0.15 V and a subthreshold slope of 78 mV/dec, compared to −3.92 V and 99 mV/dec for a conventional HEMT (C-HEMT), respectively Both the NCA-HEMT and C-HEMT show similar gate leakage current, indicating no significant degradation in gate leakage characteristics for the NCA-HEMT. The surrounding-field effect and relieved polarization contribute to the very large positive threshold voltage shift, while the work function difference makes it positive.

A High Power InGaN-Based Blue-Violet Laser Diode Array with a Broad-Area Stripe

An array of high power InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well laser diodes with a broad waveguide is fabricated. The laser diode structure is grown on a GaN substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The laser diode array consists of five emitter stripes which share common electrodes on one laser chip. The electrical and optical characteristics of the laser diode array are investigated under the pulse current injection with 10kHz frequency and 100 ns pulse width. The laser diode array emits at the wavelength of 409 nm, which is located in the blue-violet region, and the threshold current is 2.9 A. The maximum output light peak power is measured to be 7.5 W at the wavelength of 411.8 nm under the current of 25 A.

Crystallographic tilt in GaN layers grown by epitaxial lateral overgrowth

The crystallographic tilt in GaN layers grown by epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) on sapphire (0001) substrates was investigated by using double crystal X-ray diffraction (DC-XRD). It was found that ELO GaN stripes bent towards the SiNx mask in the direction perpendicular to seeding lines. Each side of GaN (0002) peak in DC-XRD rocking curves was a broad peak related with the crystallographic tilt. This broad peak split into two peaks (denoted as A and B), and peak B disappeared gradually when the mask began to be removed by selective etching. Only narrow peak A remained when the SiNx mask was removed completely. A model based on these results has been developed to show that there are two factors responsible for the crystallographic tilt: One is the non-uniformity elastic deformation caused by the interphase force between the ELO GaN layer and the SiNx mask. The other is the plastic deformation, which is attributed to the change of the threading dislocations (TDs)—from vertical in the window regions to the lateral in the regions over the mask.

Fabrication of 80-nm T-gate high indium In 0.7 Ga 0.3 As/In 0.6 Ga 0.4 As composite channels mHEMT on GaAs substrate with simple technological process

An 80-nm gate length metamorphic high electron mobility transistor (mHEMT) on a GaAs substrate with high indium composite compound-channels In0.7Ga0.3 As/In0.6Ga0.4 As and an optimized grade buffer scheme is presented. High 2-DEG Hall mobility values of 10200 cm2/(Vs) and a sheet density of 3.5 × 1012 cm−2 at 300 K have been achieved. The devices T-shaped gate was made by utilizing a simple three layers electron beam resist, instead of employing a passivation layer for the T-share gate, which is beneficial to decreasing parasitic capacitance and parasitic resistance of the gate and simplifying the device manufacturing process. The ohmic contact resistance Rc is 0.2 ωmm when using the same metal system with the gate (Pt/Ti/Pt/Au), which reduces the manufacturing cycle of the device. The mHEMT device demonstrates excellent DC and RF characteristics. The peak extrinsic transconductance of 1.1 S/mm and the maximum drain current density of 0.86 A/mm are obtained. The unity current gain cut-off frequency (fT) and the maximum oscillation frequency (fmax) are 246 and 301 GHz, respectively.