The effect of a HfO2 insulator on the improvement of breakdown voltage in field-plated GaN-based HEMT

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/20/9/097203

Abstract A GaN/Al_0.3Ga_0.7N/AlN/GaN high-electron mobility transistor utilizing a field plate (with a 0.3 μm overhang towards the drain and a 0.2 μm overhang towards the source) over a 165-nm sputtered HfO₂ insulator (HfO₂-FP-HEMT) is fabricated on a sapphire substrate. Compared with the conventional field-plated HEMT, which has the same geometric structure but uses a 60-nm SiN insulator beneath the field plate (SiN-FP-HEMT), the HfO₂-FP-HEMT exhibits a significant improvement of the breakdown voltage (up to 181 V) as well as a record field-plate efficiency (up to 276 V/μm). This is because the HfO₂ insulator can further improve the modulation of the field plate on the electric field distribution in the device channel, which is proved by the numerical simulation results. Based on the simulation results, a novel approach named the proportional design is proposed to predict the optimal dielectric thickness beneath the field plate. It can simplify the field-plated HEMT design significantly.

Keywords: HfO₂ insulator HfO₂-FP-HEMT FP efficiency proportional design

Received: 12 March 2011
Revised: 24 May 2011
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	72.80.Ey	(III-V and II-VI semiconductors)
	73.40.Qv	(Metal-insulator-semiconductor structures (including semiconductor-to-insulator))

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Mao Wei(毛维),Yang Cui(杨翠),Hao Yao(郝跃), Ma Xiao-Hua(马晓华), Wang Chong(王冲),Zhang Jin-Cheng(张进成), Liu Hong-Xia(刘红侠), Bi Zhi-Wei(毕志伟), Xu Sheng-Rui(许晟瑞), Yang Lin-An(杨林安), Yang Ling(杨凌), Zhang Kai(张凯), Zhang Nai-Qian(张乃千),and Pei Yei(裴轶) The effect of a HfO₂ insulator on the improvement of breakdown voltage in field-plated GaN-based HEMT 2011 Chin. Phys. B 20 097203

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Analysis of the modulation mechanisms of the electric field and breakdown performance in AlGaN/GaN HEMT with a T-shaped field-plate
Wei Mao(毛维), Ju-Sheng Fan(范举胜), Ming Du(杜鸣), Jin-Feng Zhang(张金风), Xue-Feng Zheng(郑雪峰), Chong Wang(王冲), Xiao-Hua Ma(马晓华), Jin-Cheng Zhang(张进成), Yue Hao(郝跃). Chin. Phys. B, 2016, 25(12): 127305.

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The effect of a HfO2 insulator on the improvement of breakdown voltage in field-plated GaN-based HEMT

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The effect of a HfO₂ insulator on the improvement of breakdown voltage in field-plated GaN-based HEMT