Investigation of AlGaN/GaN fluorine plasma treatment enhancement-mode high electronic mobility transistors by frequency-dependent capacitance and conductance analysis

This paper reports fluorine plasma treatment enhancement-mode HEMTs （high electronic mobility transistors） EHEMTs and conventional depletion-mode HEMTs DHEMTs fabricated on one wafer using separate litho-photography technology. It finds that fluorine plasma etches the AlGaN at a slow rate by capacitance-voltage measurement. Using capacitance-frequency measurement, it finds one type of trap in conventional DHEMTs with TT = （0.5 - 6） ms and DT ： （1 - 5）×10^13 cm^-2. eV^-1. Two types of trap are found in fluorine plasma treatment EHEMTs, fast with TW（f）= （0.2 - 2） μs and slow with TT（s） = （0.5 - 6） ms. The density of trap states evaluated on the EHEMTs is Dw（f） ： （1 - 3） × 10^12 cm^-2. eV^-1 and DT（s） =（2 - 6） × 10^12 cm-2. eV-1 for the fast and slow traps, respectively. The result shows that the fluorine plasma treatment reduces the slow trap density by about one order, but introduces a new type of fast trap. The slow trap is suggested to be a surface trap, related to the gate leakage current.

Convenient design of anti-wetting nano-Al/WO_(3)metastable intermolecular composites(MICs)with an enhanced exothermic life-span

For solving the dilemma of the short exothermic life-span of WO_(3)based metastable interstitial composites(MICs)with extensive application prospect,this paper has firstly designed the promising antiwetting Al/WO_(3)MICs via electrophoresis assembly of nano-Al and WO_(3)particles fabricated by hydrothermal synthesis method,followed by the subsequent fluorination treatment.A combination of X ray diffraction(XRD),field emission scanning electron microscope(FESEM),energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDX),and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR)techniques were utilized in order to characterize the crystal structure,microstructure,and elemental composition distribution of target films after different natural exposure tests.The product with uniform distribution and high purity possesses a high contact angle of~170°and a minute sliding angle of~1°,and displays the outstanding anti-wetting property using droplets with different surface tensions.It also shows great moisture stability in high relative-humidity circumstances after one year of the natural exposure experiment.Notably,the heat output of a fresh sample can reach up to 2.3 kJ/g and retain 96%after the whole exposure test,showing outstanding thermo-stability for at least one year.This work further proposed the mechanism of antiwetting Al/WO_(3)MICs considering the variation tendency of their DSC curve,providing a valuable theoretical reference for designing other self-protected MICs with a long exothermic life-span applied in wide fields of national defense,military industry,etc.

Enhancement-mode AlGaN/GaN high electronic mobility transistors with thin barrier

An enhancement-mode （E-mode） A1GaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor （HEMTs） was fabricated with 15-nm A1GaN barrier layer. E-mode operation was achieved by using fluorine plasma treatment and post-gate rapid thermal annealing. The thin barrier depletion-HEMTs with a threshold voltage typically around -1.7 V, which is higher than that of the 22-nm barrier depletion-mode HEMTs （-3.5 V）. Therefore, the thin barrier is emerging as an excellent candidate to realize the enhancement-mode operation. With 0.6-tim gate length, the devices treated by fluorine plasma for 150-W RF power at 150 s exhibited a threshold voltage of 1.3 V. The maximum drain current and maximum transconductance are 300 mA/mm, and 177 mS/ram, respectively. Compared with the 22-nm barrier E-mode devices, VT of the thin barrier HEMTs is much more stable under the gate step-stress,

Fluorine-plasma treated AlGaN/GaN high electronic mobility transistors under off-state overdrive stress

Influences of off-state overdrive stress on the fluorine-plasma treated AlGaN/GaN high-electronic mobility transistors(HEMTs)are experimentally investigated.It is observed that the reverse leakage current between the gate and source decreases after the off-state stress,whereas the current between the gate and drain increases.By analyzing those changes of the reverse currents based on the Frenkel–Poole model,we realize that the ionization of fluorine ions occurs during the off-state stress.Furthermore,threshold voltage degradation is also observed after the off-state stress,but the degradations of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs treated with different F-plasma RF powers are different.By comparing the differences between those devices,we find that the F-ions incorporated in the GaN buffer layer play an important role in averting degradation.Lastly,suggestions to obtain a more stable fluorine-plasma treated AlGaN/GaN HEMT are put forwarded.

Monolithically integrated enhancement/depletion-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMT D flip-flop using fluorine plasma treatment

Depletion-mode and enhancement-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs using fluorine plasma treatment were integrated on one wafer.Direct-coupled FET logic circuits,such as an E/D HEMT inverter,NAND gate and D flip-flop,were fabricated on an AlGaN/GaN heterostructure.The D flip-flop and NAND gate are demonstrated in a GaN system for the first time.The dual-gate AlGaN/GaN E-HEMT substitutes two single-gate E-HEMTs for simplifying the NAND gate and shrinking the area,integrating with a conventional AlGaN/GaN D-HEMT and demonstrating a NAND gate.E/D-mode D flip-flop was fabricated by integrating the inverters and the NAND gate on the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure.At a supply voltage of 2 V,the E/D inverter shows an output logic swing of 1.7 V,a logic-low noise margin of 0.49 V and a logic-high noise margin of 0.83 V.The NAND gate and D flip-flop showed correct logic function demonstrating promising potential for GaN-based digital ICs.

DC and RF characteristics of enhancement-mode InAlN/GaN HEMT with fluorine treatment

We report an enhancement-mode InA1N/GaN HEMT using a fluorine plasma treatment. The threshold voltage was measured to be ＋0.86 V by linear extrapolation from the transfer characteristics. The transconductance is 0 mS/mm at Vc, s = 0 V and VDS = 5 V, which shows a truly normal-offstate. The gate leakage current density of the enhancement-mode device shows two orders of magnitude lower than that of the depletion-mode device. The transfer characteristics of the E-mode InA1N/GaN HEMT at room temperature and high temperature are reported. The current gain cut-off frequency （fT） and the maximum oscillation frequency （fmax） of the enhancement-mode device with a gate length of 0.3 #m were 29.4 GHz and 37.6 GHz respectively, which is comparable with the depletion-mode device. A classical 16 elements small-signal model was deduced to describe the parasitic and the intrinsic parameters of the device.

Enhancement-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs fabricated by fluorine plasma treatment

The fabrication of enhancement-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs by fluorine plasma treatment on sapphire substrates is reported. A new method is used to fabricate devices with different fluorine plasma RF power treatments on one wafer to avoid differences between different wafers. The plasma-treated gate regions of devices treated with different fluorine plasma RF powers were separately opened by a step-and-repeat system. The properties of these devices are compared and analyzed. The devices with 150 W fluorine plasma treatment power and with 0.6 μm gate-length exhibited a threshold voltage of 0.57 V, a maximum drain current of 501 mA/mm, a maximum transconductance of 210 mS/mm, a current gain cutoff frequency of 19.4 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency of 26 GHz. An excessive fluorine plasma treatment power of 250 W results in a small maximum drain current, which can be attributed to the implantation of fluorine plasma in the channel.

Effects of the fluorine plasma treatment on low-density drain AlGaN/GaN HEMT

Low-density drain high-electron mobility transistors（LDD-HEMTs） with different F plasma treatment were investigated by simulations and experiments.The LDD region was performed by introducing negatively charged fluorine ions,which modified the surface field distribution on the drain side of the HEMT,and the enhancement of breakdown voltage were achieved.With the increased fluorine plasma treatment power and LDD region length,the breakdown voltage can be maximumly improved by 70%,and no severe reductions on output current and transconductance were observed.To confirm the temperature stability of the devices,annealing experiments were carried out at 400 ℃ for 2 min in ambient N_2.Moreover,the gate leakage current and breakdown voltage before and after annealing were compared and analyzed,respectively.