Effect of photoelectrochemical etching and post-metallization annealing on gate controllability of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors

Abstract

Recessed-gate AlGaN/GaN metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were fabricated by utilizing a photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching and a post-metallization annealing (PMA) process. In order to demonstrate the device performance and reliability, both electrical and optical electroluminescence (EL) properties were evaluated. The capacitance–voltage (C–V) characteristic showed that the PEC etching and subsequent PMA process enhanced the gate control of two-dimensional electron gas density. The PEC-etched-gate AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMT showed the smallest sub-threshold slope of all the samples including planar-gate and inductively coupled plasma-etched-gate devices. Furthermore, the PEC-etched devices showed an extremely low 10−11 A mm−1 gate leakage current with no spot-like EL. These results indicated that the PEC etching and subsequent PMA process improved the electrical properties of the Al2O3/AlGaN interface, resulting in enhanced device performance of the AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs.