Effects of nitride-based plasma pretreatment prior to SiNx passivation in AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors on silicon substrates

Ji Ha Kim, Hong Goo Choi, Min Woo Ha, Hong Joo Song, Cheong Hyun Roh, Jun Ho Lee, Jung Ho Park, Cheol Koo Hahn

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    23 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The effects of nitride-based plasma pretreatment on the output characteristics of AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) on silicon substrates are investigated. N2 and NH3 plasma pre-treatment methods are studied to overcome the RF dispersion phenomenon caused by nitrogen-vacancy (VN)-related defect reduction. It is found that the nitride-based plasma pretreatment is effective to overcome the RF dispersion in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si. The NH3 plasma pretreatment markedly reduced RF dispersion from 63 to 1%. This is considered to be attributable to the reduction of the effective VN-related defect density and elimination of carbon/oxide residuals on the surface of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. A NH3 plasma pretreatment prior to SiNx 100nm passivation in the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si markedly improves the total output power from 15 to 18.1 dBm under the operating conditions of VDS = 15 V/VGS = -1 V.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number04DF05
    JournalJapanese journal of applied physics
    Volume49
    Issue number4 PART 2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2010 Apr

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Engineering
    • General Physics and Astronomy

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