Electrical properties of GaN-based metal–insulator–semiconductor structures with Al2O3 deposited by atomic layer deposition using water and ozone as the oxygen precursors

Abstract

Al2O3 deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) was used as an insulator in metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) structures for GaN-based MIS-devices. As the oxygen precursors for the ALD process, water (H2O), ozone (O3), and both H2O and O3 were used. The chemical characteristics of the ALD-Al2O3 surfaces were investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. After fabrication of MIS-diodes and MIS-high-electron-mobility transistors (MIS-HEMTs) with the ALD-Al2O3, their electrical properties were evaluated by current–voltage (I–V) and capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements. The threshold voltage of the C–V curves for MIS-diodes indicated that the fixed charge in the Al2O3 layer is decreased when using both H2O and O3 as the oxygen precursors. Furthermore, MIS-HEMTs with the H2O + O3-based Al2O3 showed good dc I–V characteristics without post-deposition annealing of the ALD-Al2O3, and the drain leakage current in the off-state region was suppressed by seven orders of magnitude.