Demonstration of low leakage current and high polarization in ultrathin AlN/GaN high electron mobility transistors grown on silicon substrate

F Medjdoub (1) , Malek Zegaoui (1) , N. Rolland (1) , Paul-Alain Rolland (1)

1 IEMN - Institut d’Électronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie - UMR 8520

High quality AlN/GaN heterostructures grown on silicon substrate are demonstrated. It is found that high carrier concentration can be achieved whereas circular diodes showed a low leakage current up to 200 V reverse bias. 200 nm gate length AlN/GaN transistors exhibited a drain current density of 1.3 A/mm with a pinchoff leakage current below 20 μA/mm and a record GaN-on-silicon extrinsic transconductance of 470 mS/mm. These results demonstrate the possibility to achieve a unique combination of large polarization with a barrier thickness as low as 3 nm while preserving a remarkably low device leakage current without using any gate insulator.

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

F Medjdoub, Malek Zegaoui, N. Rolland, Paul-Alain Rolland. Demonstration of low leakage current and high polarization in ultrathin AlN/GaN high electron mobility transistors grown on silicon substrate. Applied Physics Letters, 2011, 98 (22), pp.223502-1-3. ⟨10.1063/1.3595943⟩. ⟨hal-00603008⟩