Publications

The performance and efficiency of power devices depends on both high breakdown voltage and low on-state resistance. For semiconductor devices, the critical electric field (EC) affecting breakdown scales approximately as Eg25 [1], making the wide bandgap semiconductor materials logical candidates for high voltage power electronics devices. In particular, AlGaN alloys approaching AlN with its 6.2 eV bandgap have an estimated EC approaching 5x that of GaN. This factor makes AlN/AlGaN high election mobility transistors (HEMTs) extremely interesting as candidate power electronic devices. Until now, such devices have been hampered, ostensibly due to the difficulty of making Ohmic contacts to AlGaN alloys with high Al composition. With the use of an AlN barrier etch and regrowth procedure for Ohmic contact formation, we are now able to report on an AlN/AlGaN HEMT with 85% Al.

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An AlN barrier high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) based on the AlN/Al_0.85Ga_0.15N heterostructure was grown, fabricated, and electrically characterized, thereby extending the range of Al composition and bandgap for AlGaN channel HEMTs. An etch and regrowth procedure was implemented for source and drain contact formation. A breakdown voltage of 810 V was achieved without a gate insulator or field plate. Excellent gate leakage characteristics enabled a high I_on/I_off current ratio greater than 10⁷ and an excellent subthreshold slope of 75 mV/decade. A large Schottky barrier height of 1.74 eV contributed to these results. In conclusion, the room temperature voltage-dependent 3-terminal off-state drain current was adequately modeled with Frenkel-Poole emission.

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Epitaxial (111) MgO films were prepared on (0001) AlxGa1-xN via molecular-beam epitaxy for x=0 to x=0.67. Valence band offsets of MgO to AlxGa1-xN were measured using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy as 1.65±0.07eV, 1.36±0.05eV, and 1.05±0.09eV for x=0, 0.28, and 0.67, respectively. This yielded conduction band offsets of 2.75eV, 2.39eV, and 1.63eV for x=0, 0.28, and 0.67, respectively. All band offsets measured between MgO and AlxGa1-xN provide a>1eV barrier height to the semiconductor.

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We investigate plasmonic structures in nitride-based materials for far-infrared (IR) applications. The two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in the GaN/AlGaN material system, much like metal- dielectric structures, is a patternable plasmonic medium. However, it also permits for direct tunability via an applied voltage. While there have been proof-of-principle demonstrations of plasma excitations in nitride 2DEGs, exploration of the potential of this material system has thus far been limited. We recently demonstrated coherent phenomena such as the formation of plasmonic crystals, strong coupling of tunable crystal defects to a plasmonic crystal, and electromagnetically induced transparency in GaAs/AlGaAs 2DEGs at sub-THz frequencies. In this project, we explore whether these effects can be realized in nitride 2DEG materials above 1 THz and at temperatures exceeding 77 K.

Simulations are used to explore the possibility of achieving breakdown voltage scaling using deep acceptors in the buffer for AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. The existence of an optimal range of deep level acceptor density (1017 cm-3), for which the electric field shows the most uniform distribution over the entire Lgd is demonstrated. The peak electric field can be capped off at a certain value, which can be engineered using deep level defects to be less than the critical electric field for GaN or the critical field for punch-through, whichever is lower. Following the saturation in peak electric field, the additional applied voltage spreads across the device access region. Thus, precise control of defect incorporation in the GaN buffer is shown to be a key factor in achieving high breakdown voltage HEMTs with improved unipolar figure of merit. A novel scheme for the source and drain contacts, using shallow mesa etch and partial mesa sidewall oxidation to increase the allowed range of variation in optimal acceptor density to achieve uniform electric field distribution is presented. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The influence of deep levels defects located in highly resistive GaN:C buffers on the on-resistance (RON) and threshold voltage (V th) of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) power devices was studied by a combined photocapacitance deep level optical spectroscopy (C-DLOS) and photoconductance deep level optical spectroscopy (G-DLOS) methodology as a function of electrical stress. Two carbon-related deep levels at 1.8 and 2.85 eV below the conduction band energy minimum were identified from C-DLOS measurements under the gate electrode. It was found that buffer-related defects under the gate shifted Vth positively by approximately 10%, corresponding to a net areal density of occupied defects of 8 × 1012 cm-2. The effect of on-state drain stress and off-state gate stress on buffer deep level occupancy and RON was also investigated via G-DLOS. It was found that the same carbon-related deep levels observed under the gate were also active in the access region. Off-state gate stress produced significantly more trapping and degradation of R ON (∼140%) compared to on-state drain stress (∼75%). Greater sensitivity of RON to gate stress was explained by a more sharply peaked lateral distribution of occupied deep levels between the gate and drain compared to drain stress. The overall greater sensitivity of RON compared to Vth to buffer defects suggests that electron trapping is significantly greater in the access region compared to under the gate, likely due to the larger electric fields in the latter region. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.

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Specially designed Pnp heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT's) in the AlGaAs/GaAs material system can offer improved radiation response over commercially-available silicon bipolar junction transistors (BJT's). To be a viable alternative to the silicon Pnp BJT, improvements to the manufacturability of the HBT were required. Utilization of a Pd/Ge/Au non-spiking ohmic contact to the base and implementation of a PECVD silicon nitride hard mask for wet etch control were the primary developments that led to a more reliable fabrication process. The implementation of the silicon nitride hard mask and the subsequent process improvements increased the average electrical yield from 43% to 90%. © The Electrochemical Society.

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