Enhanced two dimensional electron gas transport characteristics in Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/AlInN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor high-electron-mobility transistors on Si substrate
The authors report on Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Al{sub 0.85}In{sub 0.15}N/GaN Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor High-Electron-Mobility Transistor (MOS-HEMT) on Si fabricated by using atomic layer deposited Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} as gate insulator and passivation layer. The MOS-HEMT with the gate length of 2 μm exhibits excellent direct-current (dc) characteristics with a drain current maximum of 1270 mA/mm at a gate bias of 3 V and an off-state breakdown voltage of 180 V for a gate-drain spacing of 4 μm. Also, the 1 μm-gate MOS-HEMT shows good radio-frequency (rf) response such as current gain and maximum oscillation cut-off frequencies of 10 and 34 GHz, respectively. The capacitance-voltage characteristics at 1 MHz revealed significant increase in two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) density for the MOS-HEMT compared to conventional Schottky barrier HEMTs. Analyses using drain-source conductivity measurements showed improvements in 2DEG transport characteristics for the MOS-HEMT. The enhancements in dc and rf performances of the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Al{sub 0.85}In{sub 0.15}N/GaN MOS-HEMT are attributed to the improvements in 2DEG characteristics.