Enhancement-Mode N-Polar GaN MOS-HFET With 5-nm GaN Channel, 510-mS/mm $g_{m}$, and 0.66-$\Omega\cdot \hbox{mm}$$R_{\rm on}$

Abstract

We report enhanced dc and small-signal RF performance of enhancement-mode (E-mode) metal-oxide-semiconductor heterojunction field-effect transistors (MOS-HFETs) in N-polar GaN technology with an ultrathin 5-nm GaN channel and graded AlGaN back-barrier structure with a record on-resistance ( <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">R</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">on</sub> ) of 0.66 Ω·mm. The device has a maximum drain current ( <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Id</i> ) of 1.15 A/mm, a peak transconductance ( <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">gm</i> ) of 510 mS/mm, and a peak current-gain cutoff frequency ( <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ft</i> ) of 122 GHz, with a positive threshold voltage ( <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">V</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">th</sub> ) of 1.6 V. The device shows improved saturation and pinchoff characteristics compared to the previously reported N-polar E-mode HFETs with a maximum <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">I</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">on</sub> / <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">I</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">off</sub> ratio of 2.2 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">5</sup> .