Enhanced mobility in vertically scaled N-polar high-electron-mobility transistors using GaN/InGaN composite channels

Abstract

A GaN/InGaN composite channel design for vertically scaled N-polar high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) structures is proposed and demonstrated by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. In a conventional N-polar HEMT structure, as the channel thickness (tch) decreases, the sheet charge density (ns) decreases, the electric field in the channel increases, and the centroid of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) moves towards the back-barrier/channel interface, resulting in stronger scattering and lower electron mobility (μ). In this study, a thin InGaN layer was introduced in-between the channel and the AlGaN cap to increase the 2DEG density and reduce the electric field in the channel and therefore increase the electron mobility. The dependence of μ on the InGaN thickness (tInGaN) and the indium composition (xIn) was investigated for different channel thicknesses. With optimized tInGaN and xIn, significant improvements in electron mobility were observed. For a 6 nm channel HEMT structure, the electron mobility increased from 606 to 1141 cm2/(V·s) when the 6 nm thick pure GaN channel was replaced by the 4 nm GaN/2 nm In0.1Ga0.9N composite channel.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Feb 12, 2018
Source ID
10.1063/1.5010944

Entities

People

  • Brian Romanczyk
  • Elaheh Ahmadi
  • Haoran Li
  • Matthew Guidry
  • S. Keller
  • Steven Wienecke
  • Umesh Mishra
  • Xun Zheng

Organizations

  • Office of Naval Research

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Semiconductor Device Technology

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene