GaN MOS-HEMT Using Ultra-Thin Al ₂ O ₃ Dielectric Grown by Atomic Layer Deposition

Abstract

We report a GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor high electron mobility transistor (MOS-HEMT) with atomic layer deposited (ALD) Al2O3 gate dielectric. Based on the previous work [Appl. Phys. Lett. 86 (2005) 063501] of Ye et al. by decreasing the thickness of the gate oxide to 3.5 nm and optimizing the device fabrication process, the device with maximum transconductance of 150 mS/mm is produced and discussed in comparison with the result of 100 mS/mm of Ye et al. The corresponding drain current density in the 0.8-μm-gate-length MOS-HEMT is 800 mA/mm at the gate bias of 3.0 V. The gate leakage is two orders of magnitude lower than that of the conventional AlGaN/GaN HEMT. The excellent characteristics of this novel MOS-HEMT device structure with ALD Al2O3 gate dielectric are presented.