This paper finds that the two-dimensional electron gas density in high Al-content A1GaN/GaN heterostructures exhibits an obvious time-dependent degradation after the epitaxial growth. The degradation mechanism was investigated in depth using Hall effect measurements,high resolution x-ray diffraction,scanning electron microscopy,x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy.The results reveal that the formation of surface oxide is the main reason for the degradation,and the surface oxidation always occurs within the surface hexagonal defects for high Al-content AlGaN/GaN heterostructures.
A1GaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors （HEMTs） were exposed to 1 MeV neutron irradiation at a neutron ftuence of 1 × 10^15 cm-2. The dc characteristics of the devices, such as the drain saturation current and the maximum transconductance, decreased after neutron irradiation. The gate leakage currents increased obviously after neutron irradiation. However, the rf characteristics, such as the cut-off frequency and the maximum frequency, were hardly affected by neutron irradiation. The A1GaN/GaN heterojunctions have been employed for the better understanding of the degradation mechanism. It is shown in the Hall measurements and capacitance voltage tests that the mobility and concentration of two-dimensional electron gas （2DEG） decreased after neutron irradiation. Tbere was no evidence of the full-width at half-maximum of X-ray diffraction （XRD） rocking curve changing after irradiation, so the dislocation was not influenced by neutron irradiation. It is concluded that the point defects induced in A1GaN and GaN by neutron irradiation are the dominant mechanisms responsible for performance degradations of A1GaN/GaN HEMT devices.
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with 0.2μm V-gate recesses were developed.The 0.2μm recess lengths were shrunk from the 0.6μm designed gate footprint length after isotropic SiN deposition and anisotropic recessed gate dry etching.The AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with 0.2μm V-gate recesses on sapphire substrates exhibited a current gain cutoff frequency f_t of 35 GHz and a maximum frequency of oscillation f_（max） of 60 GHz.At 10 GHz frequency and 20 V drain bias,the V-gate recess devices exhibited an output power density of 4.44 W/mm with the associated power added efficiency as high as 49%.
In this paper,Raman shifts of a-plane GaN layers grown on r-plane sapphire substrates by low-pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition（LPMOCVD） are investigated.We compare the crystal qualities and study the relationships between Raman shift and temperature for conventional a-plane GaN epilayer and insertion AlN/AlGaN superlattice layers for a-plane GaN epilayer using temperature-dependent Raman scattering in a temperature range from 83 K to 503 K.The temperature-dependences of GaN phonon modes（A1（TO）,E2（high）,and E1（TO）） and the linewidths of E2（high） phonon peak are studied.The results indicate that there exist two mechanisms between phonon peaks in the whole temperature range,and the relationship can be fitted to the pseudo-Voigt function.From analytic results we find a critical temperature existing in the relationship,which can characterize the anharmonic effects of a-plane GaN in different temperature ranges.In the range of higher temperature,the relationship exhibits an approximately linear behavior,which is consistent with the analyzed results theoretically.
The anisotropic strain of a nonpolar （1120） a-plane GaN epilayer on an r-plane （1102） sapphire substrate, grown by low-pressure metal-organic vapour deposition is investigated by Raman spectroscopy. The room-temperature Raman scattering spectra of nonpolar a-plane GaN are measured in surface and edge backscattering geometries. The lattice is contracted in both the c- and the m-axis directions, and the stress in the m-axis direction is larger than that in the c-axis direction. On the surface of this sample, a number of cracks appear only along the m-axis, which is confirmed by the scanning electron micrograph. Atomic force microscopy images reveal a significant decrease in the root-mean-square roughness and the density of submicron pits after the stress relief.
In this study,the thick AlGaN epilayers have been grown on the c-plane sapphire substrate and the free-standing GaN substrate using low-temperature AlN nucleation layers by low-pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition(LPMOCVD).High resolution X-ray diffraction(HRXRD),atom force microscopy(AFM),scanning electron microscopy(SEM),photoluminescence(PL) and Raman scattering measurements have been employed to study the crystal quality,threading dislocation density,surface morphology,optical properties and phonon properties of thick AlGaN epifilms.The results indicate that AlGaN epifilms crystal quality can be improved greatly when grown on the free-standing GaN substrate.We calculated the threading dislocation density and found that thick AlGaN epifilm grown on the free-standing GaN substrate is much lower in total threading dislocation density than that grown on the sapphire substrate,although the surface morphology is rougher than that of sapphire substrate.
WANG DangHuiZHOU HaoZHANG JinChengXU ShengRuiZHANG LinXiaMENG FanNaAI ShanHAO Yue
We studied the performance of AlGaN/GaN double heterojunction high electron mobility transistors （DH-HEMTs） with an AlGaN buffer layer, which leads to a higher potential barrier at the backside of the two- dimensional electron gas channel and better carrier confinement. This, remarkably, reduces the drain leakage current and improves the device breakdown voltage. The breakdown voltage of AlGaN/GaN double heterojunction HEMTs （-100 V） was significantly improved compared to that of conventional AlGaN/GaN HEMTs （-50 V） for the device with gate dimensions of 0.5 - 100μm and a gate-drain distance of 1μm. The DH-HEMTs also demonstrated a maximum output power of 7.78 W/mm, a maximum power-added efficiency of 62.3% and a linear gain of 23 dB at the drain supply voltage of 35 V at 4 GHz.
Ma JuncaiZhang JinchengXue JunshuaiLin ZhiyuLiu ZiyangXue XiaoyongMa XiaohuaHao Yue
Nonpolar a-plane GaN epilayers are grown on several r-plane sapphire substrates by metal organic chemical vapour deposition using different nucleation layers： （A） a CaN nucleation layer deposited at low temperature （LT）; （B） an A1N nucleation layer deposited at high temperature; or （C） an LT thin AIN nucleation layer with an AIN layer and an A1N/A1CaN superlattice both subsequently deposited at high temperature. The samples have been characterized by Xray diffraction （XRD）, atomic force microscopy and photoluminescence. The GaN layers grown using nucleation layers B and C show narrower XRD rocking curves than that using nucleation layer A, indicating a reduction in crystal defect density. Furthermore, the GaN layer grown using nucleation layer C exhibits a surface morphology with triangular defect pits eliminated completely. The improved optical property, corresponding to the enhanced crystal quality, is also confirmed by temperature-dependent and excitation power-dependent photoluminescence measurements.
This paper studies negative bias temperature instability （NBTI） under alternant and alternating current （AC） stress. Under alternant stress, the degradation smaller than that of single negative stress is obtained. The smaller degradation is resulted from the recovery of positive stress. There are two reasons for the recovery. One is the passivation of H dangling bonds, and another is the detrapping of charges trapped in the oxide. Under different frequencies of AC stress, the parameters all show regular degradation, and also smaller than that of the direct current stress. The higher the frequency is, the smaller the degradation becomes. As the negative stress time is too small under higher frequency, the deeper defects are hard to be filled in. Therefore, the detrapping of oxide charges is easy to occur under positive bias and the degradation is smaller with higher frequency.
The strain relaxation of an A1GaN barrier layer may be influenced by a thin cap layer above, and affects the transport properties of A1GaN/GaN heterostructures. Compared with the slight strain relaxation found in A1GaN barrier layer without cap layer, it is found that a thin cap layer can induce considerable changes of strain state in the A1GaN barrier layer. The degree of relaxation of the A1GaN layer significantly influences the transport properties of the two-dimensional electron gas （2DEG） in A1GaN/GaN heterostructures. It is observed that electron mobility decreases with the increasing degree of relaxation of the A1GaN barrier, which is believed to be the main cause of the deterioration of crystalline quality and morphology on the A1GaN/GaN interface. On the other hand, both GaN and A1N cap layers lead to a decrease in 2DEC density. The reduction of 2DEG caused by the GaN cap layer may be attributed to the additional negative polarization charges formed at the interface between CaN and A1GaN, while the reduction of the piezoelectric effect in the A1GaN layer results in the decrease of 2DEC density in the case of A1N cap layer.
