Reliability in room-temperature negative differential resistance characteristics of low-aluminum content AlGaN/GaN double-barrier resonant tunneling diodes

Abstract

AlGaN/GaN resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs), consisting of 20% (10%) aluminum-content in double-barrier (DB) active layer, were grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on freestanding polar (c-plane) and nonpolar (m-plane) GaN substrates. RTDs were fabricated into 35-μm-diameter devices for electrical characterization. Lower aluminum content in the DB active layer and minimization of dislocations and polarization fields increased the reliability and reproducibility of room-temperature negative differential resistance (NDR). Polar RTDs showed decaying NDR behavior, whereas nonpolar ones did not significantly. Averaging over 50 measurements, nonpolar RTDs demonstrated a NDR of 67 Ω, a current-peak-to-valley ratio of 1.08, and an average oscillator output power of 0.52 mW.