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Traditional lumped small signal equivalent circuit models of AlGaN/GaN metal oxide semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MOS-HEMTs) are made up of constant valued circuit elements. Such models are unable to capture the high frequency behavior (above 20 GHz) of the device. In this work, a modified small signal equivalent circuit model of AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMTs is presented. The key feature of the proposed model is that the values of the different circuit elements in the model are considered to be frequency dependent in nature and not constants. The frequency dependent value of each circuit element is mathematically represented using polynomial functions where the coefficients of the functions are determined via a least-square curve fitting approach. This frequency dependent attribute of the circuit element values ensures that the proposed model is very accurate at high frequencies without sacrificing the compactness of the model topology. The accuracy of the proposed model has been verified up to 50 GHz using experimentally measured Y-parameters of AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMTs having a different gate dielectric and gate length.

We report on the fabrication and characterization of AlGaN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) capacitors and high-electron-mobility transistors (MIS-HEMTs) using a 5 nm thick Al2O3 dielectric deposited by cost-effective and environmental-friendly mist chemical vapor deposition (mist-CVD) technique. Practically hysteresis-free capacitance–voltage profiles were obtained from the fabricated two-terminal MIS-capacitors indicating high quality of the mist-Al2O3/AlGaN interface. Compared with reference Schottky-gate HEMTs, mist MIS-HEMTs exhibited much improved performance including higher drain current on-to-off ratio, much lower gate leakage current in both forward and reverse directions and lower subthreshold swing. These results demonstrate the potential and viability of non-vacuum mist-CVD Al2O3 in the development of high-performance GaN-based MIS-HEMTs.

We report on the impact of the 3-nm-thick ex-situ AlGaN regrown layer prior to insulator deposition on the interfacial properties of Al2O3/AlGaN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structures. MIS-capacitors (MIScaps) with regrown AlGaN layer exhibited anomalously excessive threshold voltage shift compared to reference sample without regrown AlGaN, suggesting highly reduced interface states density (Dit). Moreover, MIScaps with regrown AlGaN layer exhibited “spill-over” in the capacitance-voltage (C-V) profiles, further evidencing the improved Al2O3/AlGaN interfaces. Fabricated three-terminal MIS-HEMTs with regrown AlGaN showed less hysteresis in transfer curves, enhanced maximum drain current, and increased linearity over the reference device.

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