High power-added-efficiency AlGaN/GaN HEMTs fabricated by atomic level controlled etching

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/ac1414

Abstract An atomic-level controlled etching (ACE) technology is invstigated for the fabrication of recessed gate AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) with high power added efficiency. We compare the recessed gate HEMTs with conventional etching (CE) based chlorine, Cl₂-only ACE and BCl₃/Cl₂ ACE, respectively. The mixed radicals of BCl₃/Cl₂ were used as the active reactants in the step of chemical modification. For ensuring precise and controllable etching depth and low etching damage, the kinetic energy of argon ions was accurately controlled. These argon ions were used precisely to remove the chemical modified surface atomic layer. Compared to the HEMTs with CE, the characteristics of devices fabricated by ACE are significantly improved, which benefits from significant reduction of etching damage. For BCl₃/Cl₂ ACE recessed HEMTs, the load pull test at 17 GHz shows a high power added efficiency (PAE) of 59.8% with an output power density of 1.6 W/mm at V_d=10 V, and a peak PAE of 44.8% with an output power density of 3.2 W/mm at V_d=20 V in a continuous-wave mode.

Keywords: AlGaN/GaN HEMTs recess etching low damage high power added efficiency

Received: 07 May 2021
Revised: 23 June 2021
Accepted manuscript online: 14 July 2021

PACS:	73.40.Kp	(III-V semiconductor-to-semiconductor contacts, p-n junctions, and heterojunctions)
	81.05.Ea	(III-V semiconductors)
	85.30.De	(Semiconductor-device characterization, design, and modeling)
	85.30.Tv	(Field effect devices)

Fund: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62090014, 62188102, 62104184, 62104178, and 62104179) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (Grant Nos. XJS201102, XJS211101, XJS211106, and ZDRC2002).

Corresponding Authors: Xiaohua Ma
E-mail: xhma@xidian.edu.cn

Cite this article:

Xinchuang Zhang(张新创), Bin Hou(侯斌), Fuchun Jia(贾富春), Hao Lu(芦浩), Xuerui Niu(牛雪锐), Mei Wu(武玫), Meng Zhang(张濛), Jiale Du(杜佳乐), Ling Yang(杨凌), Xiaohua Ma(马晓华), and Yue Hao(郝跃) High power-added-efficiency AlGaN/GaN HEMTs fabricated by atomic level controlled etching 2022 Chin. Phys. B 31 027301

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High power-added-efficiency AlGaN/GaN HEMTs fabricated by atomic level controlled etching

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