High-Frequency Performance of GaN High-Electron Mobility Transistors on 3C-SiC/Si Substrates With Au-Free Ohmic Contacts

Abstract

As an alternative to the standard Au-based ohmic contacts, in this letter, Ti/TiN contacts were used to fabricate GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with two barrier designs (Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.2</sub> Ga <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.8</sub> N/AlN and Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.35</sub> Ga <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.65</sub> N). The ohmic contact resistance for this Au-free metallization scheme with a very smooth surface morphology is 0.13 Qmm and the specific contact resistance is ~10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-6</sup> Ωcm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . Our best 100-nm gate transistors show a maximum drain current density of 1.13 A/mm and a peak extrinsic transconductance of 388 mS/mm. The fastest transistors with a gate length of 80-nm achieve cutoff frequencies of 176 GHz, rivaling the fastest GaN HEMTs on silicon and silicon carbide substrate with comparable gate length and Au-based ohmic contacts.