HEMT structure

A High-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) is a field-effect transistor incorporating a junction between two materials
with different band gaps as the channel. HEMT transistors are able to operate at higher frequencies than ordinary
transistors, up to millimeter wave frequencies, and are used in high-frequency products such as cell phones, satellite
television receivers, voltage converters, and radar equipment. They are widely used in satellite receivers, in low
power amplifiers and in the defense industry.

Basic structure:
The basic structure of HEMT contains substrate layer, channel layer, barrier layer and metal contacts.

Substrate layer:

The substrate layer is for rigidity and epitaxial growth of layers for the HEMT. The layer is generally made
out of Si. It can have a height in range from mm to m.

Channel layer:

The channel layer is a lower energy bandgap material. In this layer, 2DEG is formed.

Barrier layer:

The barrier layer has a wider bandgap for the confinement of the 2DEG.

Metal contact:
Metal contacts are present at source, gate and drain.

Advanced III-N based HEMT structure:

The advanced III-N based HEMT structure contains substrate, nucleation layer, buffer layer, channel layer,
spacer layer, donor layer, barrier layer, cap layer, passivation layer, schottky contact for gates and ohmic
contacts for source and drain. III-N based materials are used because of high polarization which makes it
possible to create channel without doping the materials.

Figure: a typical structure of an advanced III-N based HEMT structure.

Substrate:

The substrate is there for holding the whole device. It makes the device more rigid and handier to use.
The substrate is generally Si based and all the epitaxial layers of the HEMT are grown.

Nucleation layer:

Nucleation layer is used for lattice matching between the buffer layer and the substrate [1].the buffer
layer is generally GaN. But the growth of GaN on the sapphire substrate needs very careful matching of
the lattice constants. So, the AlN or GaN is used as nucleation layer.
Buffer layer:

Thermal boundary resistance is present at the interfaces between different materials due to mismatch in
phonon density of states. Buffer layer spreads the heat which reduces the thermal resistance if its
thickness is optimized [2]. Phonon density of states is defined as the number of states per unit energy
per unit volume.

Channel layer:

The channel layer is generally a narrower bandgap material. Generally GaN, AlN or AlGaN is used. The
layer is generally undoped and has smaller bandgap than the donor layer.

Spacer layer:

The spacer layer does some specific tasks. Undoped AlGaN is generally used to make this layer. The
utilities of this layer are:

1. During construction, when layer by layer is grown, then any exposure to the oxide will prevent
any further layer adhesion. So, spacer layer is used.
2. To make sure that the 2DEG confined is as far as possible from any injected impurities.
Otherwise, false trap charges, forbidden gaps can be created, which will alter the device
performance. So, the spacer layer is grown to stop remote scattering between the ionized
dopants and 2DEG electrons.

Donor layer:

The donor layer is usually n+ doped AlGaN which has larger bandgap than the channel layer. The bandgap
difference causes the creation of barriers, which create the 2DEG.

Figure: a simple configuration of HEMT.

Barrier layer:
The layer is grown with undoped AlGaN, to increase the breakdown strength of the device, which will
increase in power. The increased power results in high frequency performance, because now channel
length can be reduced [3].

Cap layer:

The cap layer is n+ doped GaN or AlGaN. It is grown to make sure the HEMT is generally off; that is to
make the threshold voltage higher. The polarization induced electric field raises the overall conduction
band, which leads to the normally off operation.

Figure: band-diagram of a typical HEMT structure.

Passivation layer:

The passivation layer is generally a SiN layer. The parasitic charges are trapped on the semiconductor
surface which deplete the 2DEG, resulting in effects known as current collapse. This increases the
dynamic on-resistance. So, a passivation layer is used to reduce the resistance [4].

Schottky contact for gate:

A schottky contact is used at gate to have rectified nature of current. Schottky contact also causes a very
little forward current through the gate. So, the gate leakage is reduced.

Ohmic contact for source and drain:

The ohmic contact of drain and source makes it possible for achieving of 2 direction-wise current.
Salient features of advanced III-N based basic HEMT:

Because of the barrier layer grown on the HEMT, the HEMT possesses high breakdown voltage.

Due to the doping of the donor layer, the barrier the 2DEG faces is high, so a huge charge density is
found.

High electron mobility is established as the spacer layer is grown.

The HEMT has higher allowable thermal conductivity because of the buffer layer.

The HEMT also shows high switching frequency due to the cap layer.

It has lower on state resistance due to the buffer layer and passivation layer.

High power density is also a feature because of the barrier layer.

Smaller footprint is another feature which is possible for the huge polarization.

It has higher maximum junction temperature due to the buffer layer.

It has negligible reverse recovery current due to the schottky contact at the gate.

Higher current density is found from higher density of carrier.

Operation regions:

The operation regimes of the HEMT are:

1. High voltage
2. High power
3. High speed
4. High frequency
5. Low noise

MISFET structure:

The MISFET structure essentially contains an insulated layer. The layers are substrate layer, buffer layer,
channel layer, insulation layer and metal contacts for gate, drain and source.
Our structure is a combination of both HEMT and MISFET.

Advantages and disadvantages of HEMT:

Advantages of HEMT are:

1. Enhancement mode operation is possible.

2. The design of driving circuitry can be simplified

Disadvantages of HEMT are:

1. The on resistance due to thermal resistance and depletion resistance is pretty high.

Recessed MIS-gate double channel MOS-HEMT:

Our structure has a gate structure similar to the MISFET and a channel structure similar to the HEMT. The
structure has some layers which are: Si substrate, GaN lower channel layer, AlN insertion layer, GaN
upper channel layer, barrier layer consisting of GaN (cap)/ AlGaN/ AlN, AlN/SiN passivation layer, AlN
interfacing layer, oxide layer and metal contacts.

Figure: structure of the considered DC-MOS-HEMT.

Substrate:

Substrate is generally a layer of Si. It increases rigidity.

Lower channel layer:

GaN acts as a lower channel layer. GaN has lower energy bandgap than the AlN-ISL, which causes a
barrier for the electrons at the conduction band, and thus makes the channel for 2DEG.

Insertion layer:

The AlN insertion layer (ISL) is used for the creation of double channel. It has larger energy bandgap than
the lower channel GaN.

Upper channel layer:

GaN acts as an upper channel layer. It also acts like a mos-channel due to the adhesion to the oxide layer.
The oxide layer has higher conduction energy than GaN, which creates the barrier for the upper channel
2DEG.

Barrier layer:

The barrier layer consists of a cap layer which has GaN as material. the other two layers in the barrier
layer are AlGaN and AlN layers.

Passivation layer:

AlN/SiNx acts as a passivation layer. The layer decreases the dynamic resistance.

Interfacing layer:

The AlN acts as the interfacing layer between the passivation layer and the oxide layer.

Oxide layer:

Al2O3 is generally used as the oxide layer.

Metal contacts:

Schottky contacts are used at the gate to reduce gate leakage. Again, ohmic contacts are used at the
drain and source, to have non-rectifying collection of 2DEG carriers.

Characteristics:
The characteristics found in the device are very satisfying [5]. They are given below:

1. Positive, high threshold voltage.

2. High 2DEG mobility at the lower channel.
3. Smaller on resistance.
4. Large current density.
5. High breakdown voltage.
6. Sharp sub-threshold swing.
7. Better process tolerance.
Reference:
1. A. Alam, B. Schineller, M. Heuken and H. Juergensen,
H. Hardtdegen*, M. Marso*, N. Nastase*, H. Bay*, P. Kordos* and H. Lth*, The role of AlN
and GaN nucleation layers on the performance of doped and undoped nitride HEMT structures grown by
MOCVD
2. Dubravko I. Babic, Optimal AlGaN/GaN HEMT Buffer Layer Thickness in the Presence of an
Embedded Thermal Boundary

3. F. Medjdoub ; M. Alomari ; J.-F. Carlin ; M. Gonschorek ; E. Feltin ; M. A. Py ; N. Grandjean ; E. Kohn, Barrier-Layer

Scaling of InAlN/GaN HEMTs

4. Andrew D. Koehler , Marko J. Tadjer , Travis J Anderson , P. Chojecki , Karl D Hobart

a a a b c
and Francis J Kubc,
Advances in AlGaN/GaN HEMT Surface Passivation

5. wei2015