Device characteristics and performance estimation of nearly lattice-matched InAlN/AlGaN heterostructure field-effect transistors

Abstract

A nearly lattice-matched In0.12Al0.88N/Al0.21Ga0.79N heterostructure field-effect transistor (HFET) was fabricated and its device characteristics were evaluated. The fabricated device showed good pinch-off characteristics with a high breakdown field of 118 V/μm. A simple device calculation based on the experimental results showed the possibility that a low specific on-resistance below those of conventional AlGaN-channel HFETs can be achieved for InAlN/AlGaN HFETs in the case where a specific contact resistivity is less than 1 × 10−5 Ω cm2.

Electronic Transport Properties in AlInGaN/AlGaN Heterostructures

“…8–9 are data of InAlN/AlGaN heterostructures from Refs. , and the triangle is data of AlN/AlGaN heterostructures from Ref. .…”

“…Sanyam Bajaj et al realized a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) with large threshold voltage of over 3 V on the basis of high composition AlGaN/AlGaN heterostructure. In recent years, some groups employ the AlGaN or AlN barrier layer in AlGaN channel HFETs to further improve the breakdown voltage, and other groups make a full use of the merit of nearly lattice‐matched heterostructures with InAlN barrier . Recently, our group reported a lattice‐matched InAlN/AlGaN heterostructures grown on sapphire substrate by pulsed metal organic chemical vapor deposition.…”

Epitaxial growth and characterization of approximately 300-nm-thick AlInN films nearly lattice-matched toc-plane GaN grown on sapphire

“…ecently, ternary AlInN alloys have been widely utilized as component materials for GaN-based electronic and optical devices, 1) such as heterostructure field-effect transistors, [2][3][4][5] light-emitting diodes, [6][7][8] laser diodes, [9][10][11][12][13] photodetectors, 14,15) and waveguides. 16) For optical devices, besides the use of electron-blocking layers, 6,7) cladding layers, [11][12][13]16) and distributed Bragg reflectors, [8][9][10][17][18][19][20][21] the application of thick m-plane AlInN films to active light-emitting layers has recently been proposed.…”

High drain-current-density and high breakdown-field Al0.36Ga0.64N-channel heterojunction field-effect transistors with a dual AlN/AlGaInN barrier layer

“…22) To date, our past research on AlGaN-channel heterostructures and HFETs have mostly been conducted for Al x Ga 1−x N channels with x around 0.2. 17,[19][20][21][22] Regarding AlGaNchannel 2DEG heterostructures and HFETs, we predict that higher-AlN-mole-fraction Al x Ga 1−x N channels with x around 0.4 may cause a little lower 2DEG mobilities 16) but much higher breakdown fields [1][2][3]21,22) compared with those with x around 0.2 that we have ever studied. Therefore, in this study, we attempted to fabricate AlGaInN/AlGaN HFETs with x around 0.4 adopting the SAG contacts.…”

“…For the past several years, the authors have conducted intensive research on the growth of AlGaNchannel two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) heterostructures by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and their application to HFETs. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Most notable topic in our past research is the proposal of strain-controlled quaternary AlGaInN barrier layers. [20][21][22][23] That is, the quaternary AlGaInN barrier layers properly designed and grown can provide smooth surface morphologies and thermal stability in addition to high 2DEG densities 20) and thereby contributed to the improvement in the device performance.…”