A novel Si-rich SiN bilayer passivation with thin-barrier AlGaN/GaN HEMTs for high performance millimeter-wave applications

We demonstrate a novel Si-rich SiN bilayer passivation technology for AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with thin-barrier to minimize surface leakage current to enhance the breakdown voltage. The bilayer SiN with 20-nm Si-rich SiN and 100-nm Si_3N_4 was deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) after removing 20-nm SiO_2 pre-deposition layer. Compared to traditional Si_3N_4 passivation for thin-barrier AlGaN/GaN HEMTs, Si-rich SiN bilayer passivation can suppress the current collapse ratio from 18.54% to 8.40%. However, Si-rich bilayer passivation leads to a severer surface leakage current, so that it has a low breakdown voltage. The 20-nm SiO_2 pre-deposition layer can protect the surface of HEMTs in fabrication process and decrease Ga-O bonds, resulting in a lower surface leakage current. In contrast to passivating Si-rich SiN directly, devices with the novel Si-rich SiN bilayer passivation increase the breakdown voltage from 29 V to 85 V. Radio frequency (RF) small-signal characteristics show that HEMTs with the novel bilayer SiN passivation leads to f_\rm T/f_\rm max of 68 GHz/102 GHz. At 30 GHz and V_\rm DS = 20 V, devices achieve a maximum P_\rm out of 5.2 W/mm and a peak power-added efficiency (PAE) of 42.2%. These results indicate that HEMTs with the novel bilayer SiN passivation can have potential applications in the millimeter-wave range.