Investigations of AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMT with Al₂O₃ deposition by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method

This work investigates Al₂O₃/AlGaN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MOS-HEMTs) grown on SiC substrate by using the non-vacuum ultrasonic spray pyrolysis deposition (USPD) method. The Al₂O₃ was deposited as gate dielectric and surface passivation simultaneously to effectively suppress gate leakage current, enhance output current density, reduce RF drain current collapse, and improve temperature-dependent stabilities performance. The present MOS-HEMT design has shown improved device performances with respect to a Schottky-gate HEMT, including drain-source saturation current density at zero gate bias (IDSS: 337.6 mA mm^-1 → 462.9 mA mm^-1), gate-voltage swing (GVS: 1.55 V → 2.92 V), two-terminal gate-drain breakdown voltage (BVGD: -103.8 V → -183.5 V), unity-gain cut-off frequency (fT: 11.3 GHz → 17.7 GHz), maximum oscillation frequency (fmax: 14.2 GHz → 19.1 GHz), and power added effective (P.A.E.: 25.1% → 43.6%). The bias conditions for measuring fT and fmax of the studied MOS-HEMT (Schottky-gate HEMT) are VGS = -2.5 (-2) V and VDS = 7 V. The corresponding VGS and VDS biases are -2.5 (-2) V and 15 V for measuring the P.A.E. characteristic. Moreover, small capacitance-voltage (C-V) hysteresis is obtained in the Al₂O₃-MOS structure by using USPD. Temperature-dependent characteristics of the present designs at 300-480 K are also studied.