Model to explain the behavior of 2DEG mobility with respect to charge density in N-polar and Ga-polar AlGaN-GaN heterostructures

Abstract

There are three possible ways of reducing the charge density (ns) in the N-polar high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) structures, by decreasing the channel thickness, applying reverse gate bias, or modifying the back-barrier. Understanding the behavior of 2DEG mobility as a function of ns is essential to design high performance HEMT devices. Experimental data show that in the N-polar HEMT structures, the 2DEG mobility reduces as the ns decreases by applying reverse gate bias or decreasing channel thickness, whereas in the Ga-polar HEMT structures, the 2DEG mobility increases as the ns in the channel decreases by applying reverse gate bias. In this paper, the 2DEG mobility as a function of ns is calculated in N-polar HEMTs for three different aforementioned cases, and is compared to that in the Ga-polar HEMT structures. It is shown that the conventional scattering mechanisms cannot explain these different behaviors. Two new scattering mechanisms, such as scattering from charged interface states and surface state dipoles (SSD), are introduced. It is revealed that in N-polar HEMT structures, reducing ns by applying reverse gate bias or decreasing channel thickness moves the charge centroid closer to the AlGaN-GaN interface. A combination of lower charge density (less screening of the scattering potential) and smaller distance between charge centroid and charged states at the interface leads to a severe mobility degradation in these cases. In contrast, reducing ns by modifying the back-barrier (decreasing back-barrier doping and/or decreasing AlGaN composition) in N-polar HEMT structures moves the charge centroid away from the interface. This behavior is similar to that in the Ga-polar HEMT structures. Therefore, in the last two mentioned cases, the 2DEG mobility first increases slightly as the ns decreases, and decreases slightly at very low charge densities. It is also shown that SSDs have large impact on the 2DEG mobility only in the N-polar (Ga-polar) HEMTs with thin channels (barriers).