Power electronic devices are of great importance in modern society. After decades of development, Si power devices have approached their material limits with only incremental improvements and large conversion losses. As the demand for electronic components with high efficiency dramatically increasing, new materials are needed for power device fabrication. Beta-phase gallium oxide, an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor, has been considered as a promising candidate, and various β-Ga2O3 power devices with high breakdown voltages have been demonstrated. However, the realization of enhancement-mode (E-mode) β-Ga2O3 field-effect transistors (FETs) is still challenging, which is a critical problem for a myriad of power electronic applications. Recently, researchers have made some progress on E-mode β-Ga2O3 FETs via various methods, and several novel structures have been fabricated. This article gives a review of the material growth, devices and properties of these E-mode β-Ga2O3 FETs. The key challenges and future directions in E-mode β-Ga2O3 FETs are also discussed.
The beveled mesa structure of β-Ga2O3 has attracted wide attention because it can significantly weaken the peak electric field and increase the breakdown voltage. In this study, β-Ga2O3 beveled mesa has been modulated via inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching with the etching precursors of BCl3 and Ar. And the morphology of the sidewall has been investigated by properly adjusting the etching parameters, realizing different beveled angles owing to the different ratios of chemical etching and physical etching. The effect of ICP etching on the sidewall morphology of the β-Ga2O3 beveled mesa was also studied. This study provides important guidance for the realization of higher power devices based on β-Ga2O3.
Homoepitaxial growth of Si-doped β-Ga2O3 films on semi-insulating (100) β-Ga2O3 substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) is studied in this work. By appropriately optimizing the growth conditions, an increasing diffusion length of Ga adatoms is realized, suppressing 3D island growth patterns prevalent in (100) β-Ga2O3 films and optimizing the surface morphology with [010] oriented stripe features. The slightly Si-doped β-Ga2O3 film shows smooth and flat surface morphology with a root-mean-square roughness of 1.3 nm. Rocking curves of the (400) diffraction peak also demonstrate the high crystal quality of the Si-doped films. According to the capacitance–voltage characteristics, the effective net doping concentrations of the films are 5.41 × 1015 – 1.74 × 1020 cm−3. Hall measurements demonstrate a high electron mobility value of 51 cm2/(V·s), corresponding to a carrier concentration of 7.19 × 1018 cm−3 and a high activation efficiency of up to 61.5%. Transmission line model (TLM) measurement shows excellent Ohmic contacts and a low specific contact resistance of 1.29 × 10-4 Ω·cm2 for the Si-doped film, which is comparable to the Si-implanted film with a concentration of 5.0 × 1019 cm−3, confirming the effective Si doing in the MOCVD epitaxy.
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