Planar Nanostrip-Channel Al₂O₃/InAlN/GaN MISHEMTs on Si With Improved Linearity

Abstract

In this work, a 100 nm-gate Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> /InAlN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor high electron mobility transistor (MISHEMT) with a planar nanostrip-channel was fabricated on a Si substrate and its DC, small-signal RF and two-tone intermodulation characteristics were measured. The use of a planar nanostrip-channel and MIS structure allows these devices to have close to 10 dB better intermodulation distortion than traditional InAlN/GaN high electron mobility transistors. In addition, the GaN planar nanostrip-channel MISHEMT shows five orders of magnitude lower gate current I <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">g</sub> , 30% higher current drivability and much improved g <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">m</sub> and f <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">T</sub> gate voltage swing than a planar nanostrip-channel GaN HEMT with a Schottky gate. This allows the planar nanostrip-channel GaN MISHEMT to be able to operate at higher input gate voltage (more than V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">g</sub> = +4 V) and achieve higher output current with better linearity performance.