Adoption of the Wet Surface Treatment Technique for the Improvement of Device Performance of Enhancement-Mode AlGaN/GaN MOSHEMTs for Millimeter-Wave Applications

Abstract

In this work, a low-power plasma oxidation surface treatment followed by Al2O3 gate dielectric deposition technique is adopted to improve device performance of the enhancement-mode (E-mode) AlGaN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor high-electron-mobility transistors (MOSHEMTs) intended for applications at millimeter-wave frequencies. The fabricated device exhibited a threshold voltage (Vth) of 0.13 V and a maximum transconductance (gm) of 484 (mS/mm). At 38 GHz, an output power density of 3.22 W/mm with a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 34.83% were achieved. Such superior performance was mainly attributed to the high-quality Al2O3 layer with a smooth surface which also suppressed the current collapse phenomenon.

Keywords

• GaN
• HEMT
• E-mode
• wet surface treatment
• power performance
• millimeter-wave applications