High Threshold Voltage Stability Enhancement-Mode GaN <i>p</i>-FETs Fabricated With PEALD-AlN Gate Interfacial Layer
Liu Wang, Sen Huang, Qimeng Jiang, Xinhua Wang, Yingjie Wang, Yixu Yao, Jingyuan Shi, Jie Fan, Haibo Yin, Ke Wei, Xinyu Liu
Abstract
This letter presents a meticulously designed gate structure featuring a SiNx/AlN staggered gate stack on GaN <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${p}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -channel field-effect transistors ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${p}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -FETs) to enhance the modulation capability of the gate. It is found that the insertion of a 4 nm plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) AlN between SiNx gate dielectric and recessed p-GaN/AlN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure can introduce positive charges with a density of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.26\times 10^{{13}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> cm <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{-{2}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> . The fabricated <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${p}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -FETs exhibit a high threshold voltage ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{\text {TH}}{)}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of −2.9 V, a high ON/OFF current ratio of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${2}\times {10} ^{{7}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , a low <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{\text {ON}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$790 \Omega \cdot $ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm and an impressive OFF-state breakdown voltage of −64.8 V. Furthermore, a minimal <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {V}_{\text {TH}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> under wide-range voltage stress and temperature variations indicates the application potential of the structure in GaN integrated circuits.