Influences of increasing gate stem height on DC and RF performances of InAlAs/InGaAs InP-based HEMTs

The T-gate stem height of In Al As/In Ga As In P-based high electron mobility transistor(HEMT) is increased from165 nm to 250 nm. The influences of increasing the gate stem height on the direct current(DC) and radio frequency(RF)performances of device are investigated. A 120-nm-long gate, 250-nm-high gate stem device exhibits a higher threshold voltage(Vth) of 60 m V than a 120-nm-long gate devices with a short gate stem, caused by more Pt distributions on the gate foot edges of the high Ti/Pt/Au gate. The Pt distribution in Schottky contact metal is found to increase with the gate stem height or the gate length increasing, and thus enhancing the Schottky barrier height and expanding the gate length,which can be due to the increased internal tensile stress of Pt. The more Pt distributions for the high gate stem device also lead to more obvious Pt sinking, which reduces the distance between the gate and the In Ga As channel so that the transconductance(gm) of the high gate stem device is 70 m S/mm larger than that of the short stem device. As for the RF performances,the gate extrinsic parasitic capacitance decreases and the intrinsic transconductance increases after the gate stem height has been increased, so the RF performances of device are obviously improved. The high gate stem device yields a maximum ft of 270 GHz and fmax of 460 GHz, while the short gate stem device has a maximum ft of 240 GHz and the fmax of 370 GHz.