Ultra-thin AlGaN/GaN HFET with a high breakdown voltage on sapphire substrates

Abstract

In this Letter, an ultra-thin AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistor (HFET) with a total thickness of ∼200 nm was fabricated on sapphire substrates by combing physical vapor deposition and metal organic chemical vapor deposition growth methods. Thanks to the absence of a conventional semi-insulating thick GaN buffer by taking advantage of an ex situ sputtered AlN nucleation layer, we achieved a profound soft breakdown voltage of 1700 V accompanied by a 12.5 Ω·mm on-resistance and a low off-state leakage of 0.1 μA/mm in such ultra-thin HFET devices. Our work demonstrates an alternative strategy to fabricate GaN based power devices with high breakdown voltage and low cost.