High-performance GaN metal–insulator–semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MIS-HEMTs) using Sc0.2Al0.8N/SiNX as composite gate dielectric

Abstract

GaN metal–insulator–semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MIS-HEMTs) with scandium aluminum nitride Sc0.2Al0.8N/SiNX composite gate dielectric were demonstrated with improved device performance in terms of current density, on-resistance, breakdown voltage, gate leakage, and current collapse. GaN MIS-HEMTs with single-layer Sc0.2Al0.8N or SiNX were also fabricated as reference. Notably, the current collapse was reduced from ∼38.8% in GaN MIS-HEMTs with single-layer SiNX dielectric to ∼4.9% in the device with composite gate dielectric. The insertion of the thin SiNX layer can mitigate the surface damage due to the ScAlN sputtering process and significantly reduce the interface state density. Furthermore, the high valence band offset of Sc0.2Al0.8N/SiNX of 0.78 eV also plays a key role in the suppression of hole injection and gate leakage current. This work shows the effectiveness of the Sc0.2Al0.8N/SiNX composite gate dielectric and can serve as an important reference for future developments of high-performance reliable GaN HEMTs for power and RF electronics.