An amazing semiconductor choice for high‐frequency FET: H‐terminated polycrystalline diamond film prepared by DC arc jet CVD

Abstract

With the development of information and communication technology, conventional semiconductors such as Si and GaAs cannot satisfy the requirement of high‐frequency and high‐power electronic devices. By contrast, diamond film has been considered to be a potential material alternative due to the highest Johnson and Keyse figures of merit. In this paper, H‐terminated polycrystalline diamond films with different quality were prepared by DC arc jet CVD through adjusting the deposition conditions. The conductive behaviour of p‐type channel on H‐terminated diamond surface was compared and analyzed based on the N‐related impurity and spontaneous polarization model. After that, MESFETs (metal‐semi‐conductor field effect transistor) were fabricated on H‐terminated diamond and the radio frequency (RF) performance was evaluated. The cut off frequency (fT) of 11 GHz and the maximum oscillation frequency (fmax) of 18.5 GHz for MESFET in our situation were obtained. It was found that equivalent circuit elements were lower or comparable with the reported values for the FETs with the highest fT and fmax except the gate capacitance, which indicates that the carrier mobility should be improved further for high‐frequency devices application. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Carrier transport characteristics of H-terminated diamond films prepared using molecular hydrogen and atomic hydrogen

“…High-quality diamond thin films were prepared by direct current (DC) arc jet chemical vapor deposition (CVD), as proposed previously [13]. After the thin films were ground using a polycrystalline diamond disk rotating at high speed (above 1000 r/min) for a period of time, a growth surface of the as-deposited diamond films with a roughness (R a ) less than 5 nm was obtained.…”

“…The surface conductivity of the H-terminated diamond films was characterized via van der Pauw-Hall tests using an Accent HL5500 Hall system. The van der Pauw-Hall pattern is described elsewhere [13]. Au ohmic contacts were evaluated by the transmission line method (TLM), which revealed a low specific contact resistance of less than 10 −5 Ω•cm 2 in the absence of annealing.…”

Impact of Laser Wavelength on the Optical and Electronic Properties of Black Diamond

“…Just to mention a few of them, diamond detectors for ionizing radiation and particles represent a well‐established technology in the world of experimental high‐energy physics, due to extremely high resistance to radiation damage. Moreover, diamond‐based electronic devices show outstanding performance for high‐power and high‐frequency applications, due to the high breakdown field, the low dielectric constant, and the high carrier mobility . Finally, the possibility of achieving negative electron affinity (NEA) by surface hydrogenation makes diamond unique among the materials suitable for the fabrication of efficient thermionic converters …”

The direct-current characteristics and surface repairing of a hydrogen-terminated free-standing polycrystalline diamond in aqueous solutions

“…In this case, material size and limited production efficiencyas well as high price that really limits the application of diamond. Alternatively, acommercially available,high-quality,large-area, free-standing polycrystalline diamond with a high cost-performance can be prepared by a direct-current (DC) arc jet CVD technology with a high deposition rate; this can be done at a high cost-performance [5,6]. In particular, the larger and high cost-performance free-standing hydrogen-terminatedpolycrystalline diamonds(H-PCDs) can make it easier to fabricate electronic devices-such as pH sensors or detectors of ion concentrationsin extreme environments.…”

“…In terms of the application of hydrogen-terminated diamond semi-conductivity, the carriers channel has a lower activation energy than boron-doped (p-type) diamonds [5]. Hydrogen termination cannot cause damage todiamonds; however, it does form C-H bonds at the surface which induces p-type surface conductivity as a subsurface hole accumulation layer through the transfer of electrons [7,8].…”