Scaled Submicron Field-Plated Enhancement Mode High-K Gallium Nitride Transistors on 300mm Si(111) Wafer with Power FoM (R_ON xQ_GG) of 3.1 mohm-nC at 40V and f_T/f_MAX of 130/680GHz

Abstract

We demonstrate a high voltage enhancement-mode (E-mode) high-k GaN-on-300mm Si(111) NMOS transistor capable of best-in-class performance and figure-of-merits for integrated power electronics and RF mm-wave. Using scaled submicron-length field-plate, the high-voltage GaN NMOS transistors demonstrate excellent R <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ON</inf> <675Ω·μm with BV <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">DS</inf> up to 100V, and power figure-of-merit (FoM), R <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ON</inf> xQ <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">GG</inf> of 3.1 mohm-nC at 40V with a projected lifetime of 10 years. This FoM at 40V is ~20X better than state-of-the-art e-mode p-GaN HEMT, and ~30X better than Si LDMOS. Both gate field-plated and source field-plated GaN NMOS demonstrate true emode operation, achieving drain leakages as low as 0.3pA/μm at 40V with V <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">G</inf> =0V, and can be fully turned on with V <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">G</inf> of 2V with low gate leakage <2pA/μm (as opposed to 5-6V required for pGaN HEMT), thus requiring only simple CMOS driver technology. A 2x2 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> power GaN die comprising high-side and low-side switches with integrated clamps, is also fabricated. The low-side GaN NMOS switch has a total width of 1300mm, and R <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">DSON</inf> of 1.9 mohm-mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . Moreover, the same 300mm GaN-on-Si(111) technology of this work, demonstrates a record f <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MAX</inf> of 680GHz (with f <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">T</inf> =130GHz) at V <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">D</inf> =16V for a 30nm channel length GaN transistor employing scaled 100nm-length source field-plate.