We report on a 3 nm AlN/GaN HEMT technology for millimeter-wave applications. Electrical characteristics for a 110 nm gate length show a maximum drain current density of 1.2 A/mm, an excellent electron confinement with a low leakage current below 10 μA/mm, a high breakdown voltage and a F T /F max of 63/300 GHz at a drain voltage of 20V. Despite residual trapping effects, state of the art large signal characteristics at 40 GHz and 94 GHz are achieved. For instance, an outstanding power added efficiency of 65% has been reached at V DS = 10V in pulsed mode at 40 GHz. Also, an output power density of 8.3 W/mm at V DS = 40V is obtained associated to a power added efficiency of 50%. At 94 GHz, a record CW output power density for Ga-polar GaN transistors has been reached with 4 W/mm. Additionally, room temperature preliminary robustness assessment at 40 GHz has been performed at V DS = 20V. 24 hours RF monitoring showed no degradation during and after the test.
Interfaces containing misfit dislocations deteriorate electronic properties of heteroepitaxial wide bandgap III-nitride semiconductors grown on foreign substrates, as a result of lattice and thermal expansion mismatches and incompatible chemical bonding. We report grain-boundary-free AlN nucleation layers (NLs) grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on SiC (0001) substrates mediated by an interface extending over two atomic layers L1 and L2 with composition (Al 1/3 Si 2/3 ) 2/3 N and (Al 2/3 Si 1/3 )N, respectively. It is remarkable that the interfaces have ordered vacancies on one-third of the Al/Si position in L1, as shown here by analytical scanning transmission electron microscopy and ab initio calculations. This unique interface is coined the out-of-plane compositional-gradient with in-plane vacancy-ordering and can perfectly transform the in-plane lattice atomic configuration from the SiC substrate to the AlN NL within 1 nm thick transition. This transmorphic epitaxial scheme enables a critical breakdown field of $2 MV/cm achieved in thin GaN-based transistor heterostructures grown on top. Lateral breakdown voltages of 900 V and 1800 V are demonstrated at contact distances of 5 and 20 lm, respectively, and the vertical breakdown voltage is !3 kV. These results suggest that the transmorphic epitaxially grown AlN layer on SiC may become the next paradigm for GaN power electronics.
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