Innovative nitride passivated pseudomorphicGaAs HEMTs

Abstract

A novel low-temperature nitride passivation technique using high-density inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (HD-ICP-CVD) with SiH <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sub> /N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> chemistries to passivate 0.15 μm pseudomorphic GaAs HEMTs has been developed for the first time. HD-ICP-CVD nitrides have higher density and lower hydrogen concentration than those of nitrides deposited by plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD). Furthermore, HD-ICP-CVD passivated devices exhibit better performance in reverse breakdown voltage, transconductance, and cut-off frequency than those of PECVD passivated devices. The results achieved here warrant the applications of HD-ICP-CVD for next-generation nitride passivation in compound semiconductor technologies.