In this letter, we successfully achieved high-power radio frequency (RF) operation of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) fabricated on free-standing AlN substrate at X-band. The developed HEMT on AlN substrate comprised a 200 nm thick GaN channel and AlGaN buffer with an Al composition of 30%. Thanks to high breakdown voltage of the HEMT on AlN substrate, we successfully demonstrated 15.2 W mm−1 output power density at operating voltages of 70 V even without device technologies such as source-field plate and optimization of device dimension. Our results show that the potential of GaN HEMTs on AlN substrate as next-generation high-power RF devices.
The photocarrier-regulated electrochemical (PREC) process was developed for fabricating recessed-gate AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) for normally off operation. The PREC process is based on photo-assisted electrochemical etching using low-energy chemical reactions. The fundamental photo-electrochemical measurements on AlGaN/GaN heterostructures revealed that the photo-carriers generated in the top AlGaN layer caused homogeneous etching of AlGaN with a smooth surface, but those generated in the GaN layer underneath caused inhomogeneous etching that roughens the surface. The concept of the PREC process is to supply the photo-carriers generated only in the AlGaN layer by selecting proper conditions on light wavelength and voltage. The phenomenon of self-termination etching has been observed during the PREC process, where the etching depth was controlled by light intensity. The recessed-gate AlGaN/GaN HEMT fabricated with the PREC process showed positive threshold voltage and improvement in transconductance compared to planar-gate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.
We investigated the correlation between structural and photoelectrochemical properties of GaN porous nanostructures formed by photo-assisted electrochemical etching. The porous nanostructures were formed during light irradiation of the top-surface of homo-epitaxial layers grown on freestanding GaN substrates. The pore depth, wall thickness, and surface morphology of porous nanostructures were strongly influenced by the way holes generated by the light irradiation were supplied. Such structural features influenced the optical properties of GaN porous nanostructures. The photoluminescence peaks measured on GaN porous nanostructures were shifted to higher energies because of the quantum confinement in the thin GaN walls between pores. Formation of porous nanostructure decreased the photoreflectance of the GaN surface, and the smallest reflectance was obtained from the porous sample having large pores on its surface after the ultrathin layer with small pores had been removed by surface-etching. The photoelectrochemical response measured on GaN porous nanostructures in a NaCl electrolyte were drastically enhanced by the unique features of those structures, such as low photoreflectance and large surface area. The largest photocurrents were obtained from the sample from which H 3 PO 4 treatment had removed the ultrathin layer without thinning the pore walls. Photoelectrochemical systems based on semiconductor photoelectrodes have recently attracted much attention due to their potential use in the next generation of green technologies such as water splitting for fuel cells, artificial photosynthesis, and so on.1-5 Among the photoelectrode materials, GaN is one of the most attractive because of its chemical stability and its potential to achieve direct photoelectrolysis by solar power without the consumption of electric power. [6][7][8] In addition, the bandgap energy of GaN-based materials can be varied from about 0.65 to 6.0 eV by alloying them with InN and AlN, which enables us to design various functional photoelectrodes not only for spectral matching of solar light but also for the electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to carbohydrate. 9 One of the common approaches to improving conversion efficiency is to form nanostructures on the photoelectrode surface in order to increase its surface area. Most reported GaN nanostructures have been made using selective-area growth 10,11 or a dry etching process such as reactive ion etching. 12,13 There are, however, severe limitations on increasing the density of nanostructures because most approaches use lithography for defining the size and position of the nanostructures. And when a dry etching process is involved, the etching damage induced by ion bombardment is not negligible [14][15][16] and could significantly degrade the photoelectrochemical efficiency.One alternative approach is an electrochemical-fabrication process, which can form various semiconductor nanostructures in a self-assembled fashion. The most well-known application of an electrochemical process is the formation...
We investigated the structural features of gallium-nitride-porous structures formed using the photo-assisted electrochemical process in the back-side illumination (BSI) mode. The pore diameter and depth were strongly affected by the direction of illumination, where higher controllability was achieved compared with front-side illumination. The spectroscopic measurements revealed that illumination with photon energy below the bulk bandgap plays an important role in pore formation. We propose a formation model by considering the Franz-Keldysh effect that can consistently explain the obtained experimental data in which anodic etching occurs only at the pore tips under the high electric field induced in the depletion region. © 2015 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/2.0031505eel] All rights reserved.Manuscript submitted December 26, 2014; revised manuscript received February 5, 2015. Published March 14, 2015 Gallium nitride (GaN) is a III/V direct bandgap semiconductor that exhibits high-thermal, chemical, and mechanical stability and is relatively harmless to humans and the environment because it does not contain toxic substances such as arsenic (As). Most notably, GaN is a wide-bandgap material with 3.4 eV of energy, which can be varied from 0.65 to 6.0 eV by alloying it with indium nitride (InN) and aluminum nitride (AlN). On the basis of these excellent properties, various functional devices have been designed, for example ultraviolet (UV) laser diodes, 1 chemical sensors, 2 and photo-electrodes for water splitting.3 The well known challenge to improve these device's performance is to use nanostructures in which the unique optical and electrical properties, such as quantum effects and increased surface sensitivity, appear with a large surface area to volume ratio.Electrochemically formed porous structures, which have been applied for various materials, 4-7 are promising nanostructures for the above-mentioned applications. Many researchers have reported the electrochemical formation of GaN-porous structures.8-10 However, their formation mechanism has not been fully understood. One of the reasons is that the photo-assisted electrochemical process is commonly used in which the formation process becomes more complicated due to the supply of photo-carries generated by illumination. We previously argued that it is difficult with front-side illumination (FSI) to control the structural properties of GaN-porous structures. 11We believe that the optimization of the supply of photo-carriers is one of the key issues for controlling of the structural properties.In this study, we formed GaN-porous structures using the photoassisted electrochemical process in the back-side illumination (BSI) mode, for the first time, and compared with it that in FSI mode. From both experimental and theoretical aspects, we discuss the formation mechanism of GaN-porous structures in BSI mode.The electrochemical setup used in this study is schematically shown in Figure 1. A custom-made cell equipped with a crystal window and Indium Tin Oxi...
This paper demonstrates highly efficient GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) on GaN substrates with reduced interface contamination. By applying a hydrofluoric acid-based pre-growth treatment to a GaN substrate, the Si impurity concentration at the interface between the GaN substrate and the epitaxial layer can successfully be reduced. RF performance was enhanced by pre-growth treatment owing to the suppression of Si-induced parasitic loss. As a result, GaN HEMTs on GaN substrates exhibited an excellent power-added efficiency of 82.8% at a 2.45 GHz. To the best of our knowledge, this exceeds that of the previously reported discrete GaN HEMTs at around this frequency range.
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