Comprehensive Study on the Bias-Dependent Equivalent-Circuit Elements Affected by PECVD SiN Passivation in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

In this paper, a comprehensive study on the effect of plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor-deposited SiN surface passivation on the bias-dependent small-signal equivalent-circuit elements is carried out for AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors on a high-resistivity silicon substrate. The direct-current and small-signal performance of the device was found to be improved by surface passivation. The small-signal equivalent-circuit parameters at various gate and drain biases were extracted, and the physical mechanisms of their bias-dependent behaviors before and after passivation are discussed in detail.

[1]  Geok Ing Ng,et al.  High Microwave-Noise Performance of AlGaN/GaN MISHEMTs on Silicon With $\hbox{Al}_{2}\hbox{O}_{3}$ Gate Insulator Grown by ALD , 2010, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[2]  Walter Kruppa,et al.  Trapping effects and microwave power performance in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs , 2001 .

[3]  Ilesanmi Adesida,et al.  A comparative study of surface passivation on AlGaN/GaN HEMTs , 2002 .

[4]  Peter Kordos,et al.  Effect of surface passivation on performance of AlGaN/GaN/Si HEMTs , 2003 .

[5]  G. Ng,et al.  Mechanism of Increased High-Frequency Channel Noise With PECVD SiN Passivation in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs , 2009, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[6]  S. Arulkumaran,et al.  Improved Microwave Noise Performance by SiN Passivation in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si , 2009, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.

[7]  M. Mansoor Ahmed.  An improved method to estimate intrinsic small signal parameters of a GaAs MESFET from measured dc characteristics , 2003 .

[8]  L. Eastman,et al.  The effect of surface passivation on the microwave characteristics of undoped AlGaN/GaN HEMTs , 2000, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[9]  Hideki Hasegawa,et al.  Suppression of current collapse in insulated gate AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors using ultrathin Al2O3 dielectric , 2003 .

[10]  Manfred Berroth,et al.  High-frequency equivalent circuit of GaAs FETs for large-signal applications , 1991 .

[11]  N. G. Ing,et al.  Influence of Ammonia in the Deposition Process of SiN on the Performance of SiN/AlGaN/GaN Metal?Insulator?Semiconductor High-Electron-Mobility Transistors on 4-in. Si(111) , 2009 .

[12]  T.J. Brazil,et al.  A Unified Approach to Charge-Conservative Capacitance Modelling in HEMTs , 2006, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.

[13]  R. Vetury,et al.  Nonlinear source resistance in high-voltage microwave AlGaN/GaN HFETs , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[14]  Zhen Liu,et al.  Improved two-dimensional electron gas transport characteristics in AlGaN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor high electron mobility transistor with atomic layer-deposited Al2O3 as gate insulator , 2009 .

[15]  Robert Anholt,et al.  Electrical and thermal characterization of MESFETs, HEMTs, and HBTs , 1994 .

[16]  John Michael Golio.  Microwave MESFETs and HEMTs , 1991 .

[17]  C. G. Diskus,et al.  Analytical bias dependent noise model for InP HEMT's , 1995 .

[18]  J.A.M. Geelen,et al.  An improved de-embedding technique for on-wafer high-frequency characterization , 1991, Proceedings of the 1991 Bipolar Circuits and Technology Meeting.

[19]  Michael S. Shur,et al.  Low field mobility of 2‐d electron gas in modulation doped AlxGa1−xAs/GaAs layers , 1983 .

[20]  William Liu,et al.  Fundamentals of III-V Devices: HBTs, MESFETs, and HFETs/HEMTs , 1999 .

[21]  Jie Deng,et al.  Temperature-Dependent RF Large-Signal Model of GaN-Based MOSHFETs , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[22]  Zhen Liu,et al.  Effect of gate-source and gate-drain Si3N4 passivation on current collapse in AlGaN∕GaN high-electron-mobility transistors on silicon , 2007 .

[23]  Roberto Menozzi,et al.  Breakdown walkout in pseudomorphic HEMT's , 1996 .

[24]  S. Keller,et al.  Influence of the dynamic access resistance in the g/sub m/ and f/sub T/ linearity of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

[25]  J. Mateos.  Noise analysis of 0.1 mum gate MESFETs and HEMTs , 1998 .

[26]  M. Schlechtweg,et al.  Large signal modeling of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with P/sub sat/>4 W/mm at 30 GHz suitable for broadband power applications , 2003, IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, 2003.

[27]  G. Kompa,et al.  A new small-signal modeling approach applied to GaN devices , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[28]  K. Webb,et al.  A temperature-dependent nonlinear analytic model for AlGaN-GaN HEMTs on SiC , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[29]  A. F. Mehdi Anwar,et al.  Temperature-dependent nonlinearities in GaN/AlGaN HEMTs , 2002 .

[30]  S. Keller,et al.  High-power AlGaN/GaN HEMTs for Ka-band applications , 2005, IEEE Electron Device Letters.