Progress in Group Ⅲ nitride semiconductor electronic devices

Recently there has been a rapid domestic development in groupⅢnitride semiconductor electronic materials and devices.This paper reviews the important progress in GaN-based wide bandgap microelectronic materials and devices in the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China,which focuses on the research of the fundamental physical mechanisms of group III nitride semiconductor electronic materials and devices with the aim to enhance the crystal quality and electric performance of GaN-based electronic materials, develop new GaN heterostructures,and eventually achieve high performance GaN microwave power devices.Some remarkable progresses achieved in the program will be introduced,including those in GaN high electron mobility transistors(HEMTs) and metal-oxide-semiconductor high electron mobility transistors(MOSHEMTs) with novel high-k gate insulators,and material growth,defect analysis and material properties of InAlN/GaN heterostructures and HEMT fabrication,and quantum transport and spintronic properties of GaN-based heterostructures,and highelectric -field electron transport properties of GaN material and GaN Gunn devices used in terahertz sources.     

Model Development for Analyzing 2DEG Sheet Charge Density and Threshold Voltage considering Interface DOS for AlInN/GaN MOSHEMT

A model predicting the behavior of various parameters, such as 2DEG sheet charge density and threshold voltage, with the variation of barrier thickness and oxide thickness considering interface density of states is presented. The mathematical dependence of these parameters is derived in conjunction with the interface density of states. The dependence of sheet charge density with the barrier thickness and with the oxide thickness is plotted and an insight into the barrier scaling properties of AlInN based MOSHEMTs is presented. The threshold voltage is also plotted with respect to barrier thickness and oxide thickness, which reveals the possibility of the enhancement mode operation of the device at low values of the interface DOS. The results are in good agreement with the fabricated device available in the literature.     

Impact of barrier thickness on gate capacitance—Modeling and Comparative analysis of GaN based MOSHEMTs

A mathematical model is developed predicting the behavior of gate capacitance with the nanoscale variation of barrier thickness in AlN/GaN MOSHEMT and its effect on gate capacitances of AlInN/GaN and AlGaN/GaN MOSHEMTs through TCAD simulations is compared analytically. Al N/GaN and AlInN/GaN MOSHEMTs have an advantage of a significant decrease in gate capacitance up to 108 fF/ m2 with an increase in barrier thickness up to 10 nm as compared to conventional AlGaN/GaN MOSHEMT. This decrease in gate capacitance leads to improved RF performance and hence reduced propagation delay.     

Oxide interfacial charge engineering towards normally-off AlN/GaN MOSHEMT

In this paper a detail insight into the role of oxide/barrier interfacial charges (N_ox) for shifting the threshold voltage (V_T) of AlN/GaN metal oxide semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MOSHEMTs) is gained. A model is developed for V_T considering all possible charges arise at different interfaces. To validate the model the proposed device is simulated by considering different insulators and N_ox into account. It is very fascinating to observe that V_T is highly sensitive towards change in N_ox at higher oxide dimensions, whereas at lower dimensions N_ox has very negligible effect. Normally-off operation can be achieved by increasing or decreasing N_ox in MOSHEMT with Al₂O₃ or HfO₂ as gate dielectric respectively.     

Modeling and comparative analysis of DC characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HEMT and MOSHEMT devices

In this paper, a charge control model is developed for AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) and Metal Oxide Semiconductor High Electron Mobility Transistor (MOSHEMT) by considering the triangular potential well in the two‐dimensional electron gas (2DEG) and simulated with matlab . The obtained results from the developed model are compared with the experimental data for drain current, transconductance, gate capacitance and threshold voltage of both devices. The physics‐based models for 2DEG charge density, threshold voltage and gate capacitance have been developed. By using these developed models, the drain current for both linear and saturation modes is derived. The predicted threshold voltage with the variation of barrier thickness has been plotted. A positive threshold voltage can be obtained by decreasing the barrier thickness that builds up the foundation for enhancement mode MOSHEMTs. The predicted C‐V, I_d‐V_gs, I_d‐V_ds and transconductance characteristics show an excellent agreement with the experimental results from the literature and hence validate the developed model. The results clearly establish the potential of using AlGaN/GaN MOSHEMT approach for high power microwave and switching applications. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microwave frequency small‐signal equivalent circuit parameter extraction for AlInN/GaN MOSHEMT

This article presents an accurate and efficient extraction procedure for microwave frequency small‐signal equivalent circuit parameters of AlInN/GaN metal‐oxide‐semiconductor high electron mobility transistor (MOSHEMT). The parameter extraction technique is based on the combination of conventional and optimization methods using the computer‐aided modeling approach. The S‐, Y‐, and Z‐ parameters of the model are extracted from extensive dynamic AC simulation of the proposed device. From the extracted Y‐ and Z‐ parameters the pad capacitances, parasitic inductances and resistances are extracted by operating the device at low and high frequency pinch‐off condition depending upon requirement. Then, the intrinsic elements are extracted quasi analytically by de‐embedding the extrinsic parameters. S‐parameter simulation of the developed small‐signal equivalent circuit model is carried out and is compared with TCAD device simulation results to validate the model. The gradient based optimization approach is used to optimize the small‐signal parameters to minimize the error between developed SSEC model and device simulation based s‐parameters. The microwave characteristics of optimized SSEC model is carried out (f_T = 169 GHz and f_max = 182 GHz) and compared with experimental data available from literature to validate the model.     

Modeling on oxide dependent 2DEG sheet charge density and threshold voltage in AlGaN/GaN MOSHEMT

We have developed a physics based analytical model for the calculation of threshold voltage, two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) density and surface potential for AlGaN/GaN metal oxide semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MOSHEMT). The developed model includes important parameters like polarization charge density at oxide/AlGaN and AlGaN/GaN interfaces, interfacial defect oxide charges and donor charges at the surface of the AlGaN barrier. The effects of two different gate oxides (Al₂O₃ and HfO₂) are compared for the performance evaluation of the proposed MOSHEMT. The MOSHEMTs with Al₂O₃ dielectric have an advantage of significant increase in 2DEG up to 1.2×10¹³ cm^-2 with an increase in oxide thickness up to 10 nm as compared to HfO₂ dielectric MOSHEMT. The surface potential for HfO₂ based device decreases from 2 to -1.6 eV within 10 nm of oxide thickness whereas for the Al₂O₃ based device a sharp transition of surface potential occurs from 2.8 to -8.3 eV. The variation in oxide thickness and gate metal work function of the proposed MOSHEMT shifts the threshold voltage from negative to positive realizing the enhanced mode operation. Further to validate the model, the device is simulated in Silvaco Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) showing good agreement with the proposed model results. The accuracy of the developed calculations of the proposed model can be used to develop a complete physics based 2DEG sheet charge density and threshold voltage model for GaN MOSHEMT devices for performance analysis.     

氮化物半导体电子器件的若干研究进展

近年来,氮化物半导体电子器件和材料研究有了重大的进展。在国家自然科学基金资助下,西安电子科技大学、北京大学和中科院微电子所完成了国家自然科学基金重点项目《GaN宽禁带微电子材料和器件重大基础问题研究》。致力于通过氮化物电子材料和器件的基础物理机理研究提高GaN电子材料的结晶质量和电学性能、发展新结构GaN异质结材料研究,获得高性能的GaN HEMT微波功率器件。本文主要介绍该项目在GaN微波功率HEMT和新型高k栅介质MOS-HEMT、InAlN/GaN材料的生长和物性缺陷分析以及HEMT器件研制、GaN异质结的量子输运和自旋性质研究以及GaN材料高场输运性质和耿氏器件等几个方面取得的研究进展。