Influence of the additional p+ doped layers on the properties of AlGaAs/InGaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures for high power SHF transistors

Abstract

The peculiarities of a new type of pseudomorphic AlGaAs/InGaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures with the additional acceptor doping of barriers used for the creation of the power SHF pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) have been studied. A comparison of the transport characteristic of the new and typical pHEMT heterostructures was carried out. The influence of the doped acceptor impurities in the AlGaAs barriers of the new pHEMT heterostructure on the transport properties was studied. It was shown that the application of the additional p+ doped barrier layers allows the achievement of a double multiplex increase in the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) concentration in the InGaAs quantum well with no parasite parallel conductivity in the AlGaAs barrier layers. An estimation of the concentration of the doped donors and acceptors penetrating into the deliberately undoped InGaAs quantum well from the AlGaAs barriers was performed by second ion mass spectrometry and photoluminescence spectrometry methods. Taking into account the electron scattering by the ionized impurity atoms, calculation of the electron mobility in the InGaAs channel showed that some reduction of the electron mobility results from scattering by the ionized Si donor due to an increase in the Si concentration and, therefore, is not caused by the application of additional p+ doped layers in the construction of pHEMT heterostructures.