No abstract

Single and double pulse doped metamorphic high electron mobility transistor (MHEMT) structures have been grown on GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. A linear indium graded buffer layer was used to expand the lattice constant. Transmission electron microscopy cross sections showed planar interfaces. Threading dislocations were not observed along both cleavage directions. For a single pulse doped MHEMT structure with an In0.56Ga0.44As channel layer, the mobilities (10 030 cm2/V s at 292 K; 32 560 cm2/V s at 77 K) and sheet density (3.2×1012 cm−2) were nearly equivalent to values obtained for the same structure grown on an InP substrate. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy measurements of a double pulse doped structure indicated no measurable migration of the silicon doping pulses. MHEMT devices with 0.15 μm gates were fabricated, tested, and compared to GaAs pseudomorphic HEMT devices of the same geometries. Above 9 GHz, the MHEMT devices exhibited lower noise figure. From 3 to 26 GHz, the associated gain was 3 dB higher with the MHEMT devices. Also higher linearity performance was obtained with the MHEMT devices. At 4 GHz MHEMT linearity measurements yielded third order intermodulation distortion intercepts, IP3, of 36–39 dBm with linearity figure of merits of 60–90. Due to the significantly lower cost and more robustness of GaAs substrates compared to InP substrates, MHEMT technology is very promising for low cost manufacturing of low noise amplifiers.

GaAs films doped with boron in the 1020 cm−3 range were grown by solid source molecular-beam epitaxy. Lattice contractions were observed in x-ray double crystal spectra. Substitutional boron concentrations up to 1.7×1020 cm−3 were obtained with narrow x-ray linewidths and specular surface morphology. For a given boron flux, the substitutional concentration was dependent on growth temperature. P-type conductivity due to boron incorporation was measured in the films with hole concentration reaching 1×1019 cm−3. The lattice contractions exhibited good thermal stability for rapid thermal anneals.

Carbon-doped GaAs films have been grown by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy using a graphite filament. The films were doped from 1×1015 cm−3 to 5×1019 cm−3 and the resulting mobilities are equivalent to beryllium-doped films. A slight dependence of As4/Ga flux ratio on carbon doping was observed. The use of either As2 or As4 did not significantly affect the carbon doping concentrations. Lattice contractions were observed for films doped heavily with carbon or beryllium. For a given doping concentration the contraction is more significant for carbon doping which is consistent with the smaller tetrahedral covalent radius of carbon compared to beryllium. Good agreement between observed and calculated lattice contractions with carbon doping is obtained. Annealing studies on a film doped with carbon at 5×1019 cm−3 indicate that the electrical properties and lattice contraction are quite stable.

GaAs films were doped with carbon up to a hole concentration of 1.3×1020 cm−3 using CBr4 vapor. The material quality of the heavily doped films was found to be better than that obtained using evaporated carbon. Improvements at the highest doping levels include better surface morphology, higher hole mobilities, significantly stronger photoluminescence, and near unity substitutional incorporation. Doping pulses created using CBr4 exhibited abrupt transitions. From the results it is suggested that the material quality of the films doped with evaporated carbon are degraded at high doping levels due to surface combination of reactive carbon species.