Transient electron transport and velocity overshoot in wurtzite GaN, InN, and AlN are examined and compared with that which occurs in GaAs. For all materials, we find that electron velocity overshoot only occurs when the electric field is increased to a value above a certain critical field, unique to each material. This critical field is strongly dependent on the material, about 4 kV/cm for the case of GaAs but much higher for the III–nitride semiconductors: 140 kV/cm for GaN, 65 kV/cm for InN, and 450 kV/cm for AlN. We find that InN exhibits the highest peak overshoot velocity and that this velocity overshoot lasts over the longest distances when compared with GaN and AlN. Finally, using a one-dimensional energy–momentum balance approach, a simple model is used to estimate the cutoff frequency performance of nitride based heterojunction field effect transistors (HFETs) and a comparison is made to recently fabricated AlGaN/GaN HFETs.

No abstract

We report on AlGaN/GaN metal–oxide–semiconductor heterostructure field-effect transistors (MOS-HFETs) grown over insulating 4H–SiC substrates. We demonstrate that the dc and microwave performance of the MOS-HFETs is superior to that of conventional AlGaN/GaN HFETs, which points to the high quality of SiO2/AlGaN heterointerface. The MOS-HFETs could operate at positive gate biases as high as +10 V that doubles the channel current as compared to conventional AlGaN/GaN HFETs of a similar design. The gate leakage current was more than six orders of magnitude smaller than that for the conventional AlGaN/GaN HFETs. The MOS-HFETs exhibited stable operation at elevated temperatures up to 300 °C with excellent pinch-off characteristics. These results clearly establish the potential of using AlGaN/GaN MOS-HFET approach for high power microwave and switching devices.

We present velocity-field simulations of n-doped, wurtzite-phase GaN for temperatures between 77 and 1000 K using an ensemble Monte Carlo technique. A three-valley model of the band structure is assumed, and the ionized impurity, polar optical phonon, acoustic phonon, piezoelectric, and intervally scattering mechanisms are considered. Electron degeneracy and heating are also accounted for. Properties of the two dimensional electron gas in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures are also estimated by performing simulations on bulk GaN in which the electron concentration exceeds the ionized donor concentration by factors of ten to one hundred. The simulations predict that peak steady-state drift velocities ranging from 3.3×107 to 2.1×107 cm/s for temperatures between 77 and 1000 K can be achieved in both the two dimensional electron gas and in the bulk material with an ionized donor concentration of 1016 cm−3. Furthermore, the simulations predict that the two-dimensional electron gas in GaN will exhibit a low-field mobility an order of magnitude greater than the bulk material, in agreement with experimental results.

We calculated the elastic strain relaxation in (GaN)n-(AlN)n, (GaN)n(AlxGa1−xN)n and (GaN)n(InxGa1−xN)n superlattices where n is the number of layers in the superlattice cell. This calculation and a similar calculation for a semiconductor–insulator–semiconductor structure allowed us to determine the lower and upper bounds for the elastic strain relaxation in (GaN)m(AlN)n superlattices with arbitrary n/m ratios, i.e., we determine a full range of the critical thicknesses for GaNm(AlN)n superlattices. The obtained theoretical results can also be applied to other superlattices based on III nitrides and their solid solutions. Our theory agrees with the experimental data for GaN-AlN superlattices. Also, we show that the piezoelectric effect may cause a large shift of the absorption edge in defect-free GaNm(AlxGa1−xN)n superlattices.