Growth and Fabrication of AlGaN/GaN HEMT on SiC Substrate

Abstract

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) was grown on silicon carbide substrate by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition technique. The AlGaN/GaN structure was optimized by tuning the growth conditions such as AlN buffer thickness, and the Al composition and thickness of AlGaN barrier layer. As a result, the X-ray rocking curve widths were 277 arcsec and 324 arcsec for the GaN (002) and (102) planes, respectively, indicating a high crystalline quality. Hall measurement showed that the AlGaN/GaN structure has a high electron mobility of 1840 (cm(2)/V-s) and a sheet electron concentration of 9.85 x10(12) cm-(2). Besides, HEMT device with sub-micron gate-length (0.7 mu m) was also successfully fabricated. DC measurement showed that the HEMT device has a saturated current of 800 mA/mm, a transconductance of 257 mS/mm and an off-state breakdown voltage larger than 100 V. For RF performance, the device has achieved an output power density (P-out), gain, and power added efficiency (PAE) of 7 W/mm, 23.5 dB and 61.7%, respectively, measured at 2 GHz frequency. On the other hand, the RF performance measured at 8 GHz showed that the device could achieve P-out, gain and PAE of 5.01 W/mm, 14.9 dB and 26.23% respectively.