Current collapse-free i-GaNAlGaNGaN high-electron-mobility transistors with and without surface passivation

S. Arulkumaran, T. Hibino, T. Egawa, and H. Ishikawa Citation: Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 5745 (2004); doi: 10.1063/1.1830677 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1830677 View Table of Contents: http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/APPLAB/v85/i23 Published by the American Institute of Physics.

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APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS

VOLUME 85, NUMBER 23

6 DECEMBER 2004

Current collapse-free i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN high-electron-mobility transistors with and without surface passivation
S. Arulkumaran,a) T. Hibino, T. Egawa,b) and H. Ishikawa
Research Center for Nano-Device and System, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Showa-ku, Gokiso-cho, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan

(Received 14 June 2004; accepted 21 October 2004) Drain current ID collapse-free i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) with and without surface passivation (electron-beam evaporated SiO2) were demonstrated using dc and pulsed 120 Hz IDS VDS characteristics up to the drain supply voltage of 40 V. The observation of small ID transients and negligibly small hysteresis widths with small white light illumination effects on both passivated and unpassivated i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs conrms the suppression of collapse related traps. Three and two thermally activated trap levels were observed in passivated (+0.395, 0.079, and 0.949 eV) and unpassivated (0.066 and 0.368 eV) AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs, respectively. However, i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs with and without surface passivation exhibited only one trap level at 0.161 eV. These results show that the addition of thin cap layer i-GaN screens the collapse-related surface states/traps from channel. 2004 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.1830677] Gallium nitride-based heterostructures are extremely attractive for power electronics applications. Improvements in material growth and device design have produced AlGaN/ GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) with power densities of 174 W at 63 V for 3G mobile applications.1 Despite the impressive performance, unpassivated metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs show an increase in knee voltage and a decrease in maximum drain current IDmax when measured under dynamic conditions compared to static conditions.27 Recently unpassivated AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs grown on SiC substrates were demonstrated with minimum rf dispersion using doped and undoped cap layers by MOCVD and plasma-assisted MBE.8,9 The identication of an additional trap level at +0.61 eV was responsible for the severe current collapse in sapphire-based AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs.2 For practical applications, passivation for electronic devices is inevitable. Both passivation and surface doped screening layers of the AlGaN surface have been shown to mitigate dispersion effects for MOCVD grown material.57,10 But a complete physical understanding of dispersion is still lacking. In this letter, we report drain current ID collapse-free i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs with and without SiO2 passivation. These HEMTs are allowed to supply high drain voltage VDS of up to 40 V without ID collapse. The device structures were grown by MOCVD on 2 in. sapphire substrate. 3-nm-thick i-GaN cap/screening layer was grown on the typical AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs structure. The growth details of AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs structures were published elsewhere.7 The two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) sheet concentration ns and Hall mobility H of i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN structures at room temperature were 1.8 1013 cm2 and 811 cm2 / V s, respectively. After the mesa isolation by BCl3 plasma reactive ion etching, 100nm-thick SiO2 was deposited at 150 C by electron-beam
a)

b)

Electronic mail: arul001@yahoo.com Electronic mail: egawa.takashi@nitech.ac.jp 5745

evaporation. The device fabrication was identical to Ref. 7. The device dimensions used for these studies are as follows: Lsd / Lsg / Wg / Lg = 9 / 3 / 15/ 2 m; Lsd / Lgd / Wg / Lg = 10/ 5 / 200/ 2 m. The dc and pulsed 120 Hz IDS VDS characteristics were carried out on the HEMTs using Agilent 4156c semiconductor parameter analyzer and Sony Tektronix 370A curve tracer, respectively. To observe the ID collapse, pulse 120 Hz IDS VDS characteristics were done on the devices for different VDS of 0 4, 0 8, 0 12, 0 15, 0 20, 0 25, 0 30, 0 35, and 0 40 V. For the identication of thermally activated traps, dc IDS VDS characteristics of HEMTs were carried out at different measurement temperatures 25 400 C . To conrm the trapping-effect, transient characteristics were carried out for a xed VDS = 10 V and Vg = 0 V. Good pinch-off high VDS =40 V dc IDS VDS characteristics of i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs Wg / Lg = 15/ 2 m with and without SiO2 passivation are shown in Fig. 1(a). The maximum extrinsic transconductance gmmax and IDmax of unpassivated and SiO2 passivated i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs are 153 and 137 mS/ mm and 623 and 585 mA/ mm, respectively (see Table I). The exhibited values of gmmax and IDmax are consistent with the product of Hns = 1.5 1016 V1s1. For clear visibility, selected pulse IDS VDS characteristics (VDS = 0 12, 0 20, 0 30, and 0 40 V) of HEMTs with and without passivation for the gate voltages of Vg = + 1.5 and +0.5 V are shown in the Fig. 1(b). To quantify the ID collapse, the knee drain current IKnee of HEMTs was determined from pulsed IDS VDS characteristics [see Fig. 1(c)] for different VDS. Table I shows IKnee values measured from static IKstatic and pulse IKpulse modes. Though the percentage of decrease in IKpulse with respect to IKstatic is small 0.13% for unpassivated AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs, the per10.75% for passicentage of decrease in IKpulse is high vated AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs. From the estimation of IKstatic and IKpulse values, it is clear that the ID collapse is high for surface passivated AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs when compared to i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs with and without surface passi 2004 American Institute of Physics

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5746

Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 85, No. 23, 6 December 2004

Arulkumaran et al.

FIG. 1. (a) Good pinch-off static IDS VDS characteristics of i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs with and without SiO2 surface passivation. (b) Selected VDS (0 12, 0 20, 0 30, 0 40 V) pulsed 120 Hz IDS VDS characteristics of i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs with and without SiO2 surface passivation measured at Vg = + 1.5 and +0.5 V. (c) IKnee of HEMTs with and without SiO2 passivation measured from pulsed IDS VDS characteristics as a function of VDS. Closed symbols are denoting the values measured from static mode.

vation. Also, no dispersion was observed in i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs up to the pulse width of 80 s. From this, we found that the traps/charge responsible for the current collapse came from surface/gate electrode. This is conrmed by hysteresis-directions of pulsed characteristics. We have recently demonstrated small ID collapse in Si3N4, silicon oxynitride passivated and unpassivated AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs.7

Figure 2(a) shows the pulsed 120 Hz IDS VDS characteristics measured at Vg = + 1.5 V and VDS = 0 40 V for iGaN/ AlGaN/ GaN and AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs with and without surface passivation. The clockwise (CW) hysteresis loop was observed on i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs. A mixture of counterclockwise (CCW) and CW hysteresis loops was observed on AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs with surface passivation. Moreover, hysteresis width Vhys is small for both unpassivated and passivated i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs when compared with the AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs (see Table I). The occurrence of very small Vhys in i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs is an indication of high switching speed.7 From this, it is possible to conclude that the surface states/traps responsible for the current collapse are dominant in SiO2 / AlGaN interface when compared to SiO2 / GaN interface. Thermally activated trap levels were determined from drain leakage current IDLeak Richardsons plot [see Fig. 2(b)]. Three and two trap levels were identied in passivated (+0.395, 0.079, and 0.949 eV) and unpassivated (0.066 and 0.368 eV) AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs, respectively. However, i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs with and without surface passivation exhibited only one trap level at 0.161 eV. The existence of traps with the activation energies of +0.395 and 0.949 eV in the passivated AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs are due to the deep acceptor initiated impact ionization and temperature assisted tunneling, respectively.11 From this it is clear that the deep acceptor trap level is responsible for the severe ID collapse in SiO2 passivated AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs. This is in good agreement with our previously reported results.2 The increase of IDLeak with an activation energies of 0.079 and 0.066 eV are due to the surface based hopping conduction.11 The ID transients were performed for a xed VDS = 10 V and Vg = 0 V with white-light switched ON and OFF conditions. Figure 2(c) shows the normalized ID transients of passivated and unpassivated i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN and AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs. Large transients ( 4.0% at 40 s) were observed on both unpassivated and passivated AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs. However, i-GaN cap layer HEMTs with and without surface passivation showed small transients ( 2.5 2.7% at 40 s). The observation of small transients prevents the formation of depletion region on the surface of the device in the gatedrain region.4 The percentage of increase in ID under illumination was high (0.69%) for passivated AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs when compared to unpassivated HEMTs. However, the percentage of increase in ID under illumination was negligibly small (0.09%) for i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs. Small transients with small illumination effects lead the suppression of collapse related traps. Figure 3(a) shows the OFF-state breakdown voltage BVgd characteristics of HEMTs with and without SiO2 passivation measured at subthreshold regime Vg = 5.5 V by destroying the devices with identical dimensions: Wg / Lsd / Lgd / Lg = 200/ 10/ 5 / 2 m. More than 50% improve-

TABLE I. List of selected parameters for HEMTs with and without SiO2 passivation. Passivation layer Without SiO2 With SiO2 IDmax mA/ mm 617 749 565 772 gmmax mS/ mm 153 189 137 187 Vhys V at VDS V at VDS = 40 V ID = 2 mA/ mm 0.65 0.85 0.66 3.48 62 77 145 89 IgLeak mA/ mm 0.94 0.032 0.017 10.7 IKpulse mA/ mm at VDS = 40 V 613 748 556 689 IKstatic IKpulse / IKstatic % 0.65 0.13 2.11 10.75

HEMT structure i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN AlGaN/ GaN i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN AlGaN/ GaN

BVgd V 88 112 183 128

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Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 85, No. 23, 6 December 2004

Arulkumaran et al.

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FIG. 3. (a) BVgd characteristics of HEMTs with and without SiO2 surface passivation measured at Vg = 5.5 V. (b) Two terminal gate leakage current IgLeak characteristics of HEMTs with and without SiO2 passivation.

FIG. 2. (a) 120 Hz pulsed IDS VDS characteristics of HEMTs for Vg = + 1.5 V. (b) Activation energy plot of both passivated and unpassivated HEMTs for IDLeak at Vg = 5.5 V and VDS = 20 V. (c) Effects of ID transients for white light illumination (ON and OFF).

on both unpassivated and SiO2 passivated i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs is due to the addition of thin cap layer i-GaN, which screens collapse-related surface states/traps from 2DEG channel. These results demonstrate the potential of the device design as a controllable and repeatable solution to decrease the current collapse with high BVgd and produce power from GaN-based HEMTs with and without surface passivation. This study was partially supported by a special coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology.
K. Joshin, T. Kikkawa, H. Hayashi, T. Maniwa, S. Yokokawa, M. Yokoyama, N. Adachi, and M. Takikawa, Technical Digest of IEDM, Washington, DC, 810 December 2003, p. 983. 2 S. Arulkumaran, T. Egawa, H. Ishikawa, and T. Jimbo, Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 3073 (2002). 3 P. B. Klein, S. C. Binari, K. Ikossi-Anastasiou, A. E. Wickenden, D. Koleske, R. L. Hentry, and D. S. Katzer, Electron. Lett. 37, 661 (2001). 4 R. Ventury, N. Q. Zhang, S. Keller, and U. K. Mishra, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 48, 560 (2001). 5 B. M. Green, K. K. Chu, E. M. Chumbes, J. A. Smart, J. R. Shealy, and L. F. Eastman, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 21, 268 (2000). 6 T. Kikkawa, M. Nagahara, N. Okamoto, Y. Tateno, Y. Yamaguchi, N. Hara, K. Joshin, and P. M. Asbeck, Technical Digest of IEDM, Washington, DC, 25 December 2001, p. 585. 7 S. Arulkumaran, T. Egawa, H. Ishikawa, T. Jimbo, and Y. Sano, Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 450 (2004). 8 G. Weimann, M. J. Manfra, and T. Wachtler, IEEE Electron Device Lett. 24, 57 (2003). 9 R. Cofe, L. Shen, G. Parish, A. Chini, D. Buttari, Heikman, S. Keller, and U. K. Mishra, Electron. Lett. 39, 1419 (2003). 10 T. Mizutani, Y. Ohno, M. Akita, S. Kishimoto, and K. Maezawa, Phys. Status Solidi A 194, 447 (2002). 11 S. Arulkumaran, T. Egawa, H. Ishikawa, and T. Jimbo, Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 3110 (2003).
1

ment in BVgd was observed on the passivated i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs. Similar improvement was observed in VDS at 2 mA/ mm (see Table I). The observation of high BVgd for SiO2 passivated i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs is due to the occurrence of low gate leakage current IgLeak . About two orders of low IgLeak was observed in i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs [see Table I and Fig. 3(b)]. A small improvement in BVgd with high IgLeak in passivated AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs may be due to the inuence of deep traps in SiO2 / AlGaN interface, which depletes the channel vertically.7 The current collapse-free i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs with and without SiO2 surface passivation were demonstrated up to the VDS of 40 V. Three and two thermally activated trap levels were observed in passivated and unpassivated AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs, respectively. However, i-GaN/ AlGaN/ GaN HEMTs with and without surface passivation exhibited only one trap level at 0.161 eV. The observation of only one trap level, small Vhys, small illumination effect, small ID transients, and high BVgd with low IgLeak

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