490

Design and Simulation of GaN/AlGaN HEMTs with

Low Leakage Current and High ON/OFF
Current Ratio
Prabha.P.Nair1, D.Nirmal2, Sajitha Soman3, M S Annie Ramya4, Kingsly Jeba.I5
1,2,3,4,5
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Karunya University, Coimbatore-641114, India.
1
prabhapnair4@gmail.com

Abstract—A gate-recessed AlGaN/GaN based heterojunction
field effect transistor (HFET) on SiC Substrate is designed and
simulated using both Si3N4 and SiO2 passivation layers and its
DC performance characteristics are analyzed using
SENTAURUS TCAD Tools. The maximum ON current of the
proposed device is found to be 670mA/mm at a gate voltage of
- 1.5 V and the maximum OFF current of the device is found to
be less than 10-7 A/μm. This substantially reduced leakage
current leads to a high ON/OFF Current ratio. The
transconductance of the device is found to be 6e-4S/μm at a gate
voltage of 0.5 V. The rise in ON current is mainly due to the
increase in the accumulation of the positive charges at the
Si3N4/GaN interface which leads to the increase in the sheet
carrier concentration in the 2DEG channel.
Keywords—Heterojunction Field Effect Transistor, High
Electron Mobility Transistor, Heterojunction, Two-dimensional
electron gas, band gap,passivation
I. INTRODUCTION
The AlGaN/GaN based heterojunction field effect
transistors have been successfully developed for various high
power and high frequency applications. The material
properties of GaN/AlGaN HFETs such as high saturation
velocity, wide band gap, high breakdown voltage high sheet
carrier density and high thermal conductivity makes it a
promising device for high performance applications in recent
years[1],[2]. These wide band gap semiconductor devices
provides better performance and reduce short channel effects
as compared to the conventional Silicon devices. This
GaN/AlGaN HEMTs exhibits strong spontaneous and piezo
electric polarization effects which results in the development
of high concentration of two-dimensional electron gas or
quantum well at the GaN/AlGaN interface[3],[4].
The main problem in GaN/AlGaN based HFETs is the
OFF-state leakage current which causes current collapse effect
which in turn reduces the power efficiency of the devices. This
effect is due to the presence of electrons trapped between the
gate and the drain of the device[5],[6]. These trapped electrons
injected from the gate develop a charged layer at or near the
GaN/AlGaN interface which leads to the depletion of the
channel. It is not possible for these electrons to modulate the
charges of the channel during the high frequency applications,
thereby reducing the device ON current and output power
efficiency[7],[8]. Different solutions were proposed to reduce
the leakage current of the GaN/AlGaN HEMT devices. One
solution was to add a semiconducting dielectric layer capped
with field plate which blocks the gate leakage current path and
removes the current collapse effect. Another solution is the
development of a two-step plasma treatment technology,
which completely reduces the leakage current in the
GaN/AlGaN HEMTs[9],[10]. The leakage current can also be
reduced by using an atomic layer deposited Al2O3 as the gate
dielectric material[11],[12].
In this proposed work, the leakage of the GaN/AlGaN
HEMTs can be reduced by the surface passivation of the
device using dielectric materials such as Si3N4 and SiO2,
which improves the DC performance of the device. This
surface passivation of the GaN/AlGaN HEMTs removes the
surface defects and traps and provides less dispersion. This
method removes the current collapse effect of the device,
which limits the performance of the device, thereby reducing
the leakage current of the device.
II. HFET DESIGN AND SIMULATION
In this paper, the design and simulation of GaN/AlGaN
HFET has been done using SENTAURUS TCAD tools. The
analysis of different DC parameters such as ON Current, OFF
current, Transconductance, Effect Of Mole fraction is
discussed here. The proposed device structure of AlGaN/GaN
HFET includes a 10nm GaN bulk layer, followed by a delta
doping layer of thickness 2nm, capped by a 0.0345μm AlGaN
barrier layer with a mole fraction of 0.3 build on a 0.8μm SiC
Substrate. In the proposed device, the delta doping is achieved
by introducing a sheet charge density of 5.4x1012cm-2. The
gate length of the device is set to be 0.25μm. The source/drain
ohmic contacts were first formed by Ti/Al/Ti/Au deposition.
Finally, a PECVD Si3N4/SiO2layerof 0.05μm/0.05μm/0.04μm
was deposited for surface passivation of the device. The
source and drain contact lengths are 0.05μm each. The basic
structure of the device is shown in the fig.1.
The design parameters of the proposed device is shown in
table 1.The GaN/AlGaN HFET Structure with the specified
dimensions are designed by using Sentaurus Structure Editor
and the device is then meshed to provide the uniform
distribution of the dopants across the device. The device is
then simulated using Sentaurus Device tool by using
hydrodynamic model.

978-1-4673-5090-7/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

 491

Passivation o o Passivation
x x
i i
GaN Cap d Gate d GaN Cap
e e
Undoped AlGaN Spacer

Delta doping layer

S D D
Undoped GaN Channel

SiC Substrate
w
Fig.2 Meshed structure of HFET

Fig.1 Structure of GaN/AlGaN HFET

Table1 .Device Dimensions for GaN/AlGaN HFET Structure

Parameter Dimensions
Height of SiC Substrate 0.8μm
Height of GaN Channel 10nm
AlGaN spacer thickness 0.0345μm
Delta doping thickness 2nm
Height of GaN cap layer 0.03μm
Gate length 0.25μm
Width of the oxide spacer 0.04μm
X mole fraction 0.3

III RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The various DC Characteristics such as Id-Vg
Characteristics, Id-Vd Characteristics, ON Current, OFF
Current and Transconductance of the proposed GaN/AlGaN
HFET has been analyzed using Inspect and Tecplot tools.
A.ON CURRENT
The ON Current of the device is defined as the drain
current due to the flow of the electrons from source to drain
when the gate voltage is applied to the device. The device is
simulated by varying the drain voltage from 0V to 5V for gate
voltages in the range -1.5V to +1.5V. The maximum drain
current was found to be 676mA/mm and the threshold voltage
of the device is found to be -1.5V.The drain current increases
linearly as the gate voltage increases and reaches saturation if
the gate voltage increases beyond 1V.
Fig.3 Id-Vg Characteristics of GaN/AlGaN HFET
The Id-Vg characteristics of the proposed GaN/AlGaN HFET
device are shown in the fig.3.The Id-Vd characteristics of the
device are plotted by varying the gate voltages from -0.8V to
+0.8V as shown in the fig. 4.
B.OFF CURRENT
OFF Current is defined as the leakage current present in
the device when the gate voltage is not applied that is IOFF =
Id when Vg = 0. It has been found that the OFF Current
increases from 10e-15 to 10e-3 as the drain voltage increases
from 0V to 12V due to current collapse effect as shown in
fig.5. This is due to the trapped charges in the structure as a
result of hot electron injection at high drain voltages.

Fig.4 Id-Vd Characteristics of GaN/AlGaN HFET
Fig.5 Variation of OFF Current of GaN/AlGaN HFET
C. TRANSCONDUCTANCE
Transconductance of GaN/AlGaN HFET is the change in
the drain current divided by the small change in the
gate/source voltage with a constant drain source voltage. The
transconductance of the device is shown in the fig.6. It has
been found that the transconductance of the proposed device.
The transconductance of the device is shown in the fig.6. It
has been found that the transconductance of the proposed
device increases linearly as the gate voltage increases and
reaches a maximum value at Vgs=0.5V.
492
Fig.6 Transconductance of GaN/AlGaN HFET
It shows that the drain current increases as the mole
fraction increases. It has been found that the maximum drain
current is obtained when mole fraction, x =0.3. The various
DC characteristics Such as Id-Vg characteristics, Id-Vd
characteristics, ON Current and Transconductance has been
analyzed.
IV.CONCLUSION
The high performance AlGaN/GaN HEMTs has been
successfully developed for various high frequency, high power
applications, The physical properties of gallium nitride such as
high saturation velocity, high thermal conductivity, high
breakdown voltage, Wide band gap, high electron velocity and
high sheet carrier density make it a promising material for
field effect transistor devices for high speed, high power and
RF applications in VLSI. The proposed HFET structure is
designed and simulated using SENTAURUS TCAD tools. The
various DC characteristics of the proposed device such as I d-
Vg Characteristics, Id-Vd Characteristics, ON Current, OFF
Current, Transconductance has been obtained using Tecplot
and Inspect tools. It has been found that the device attains
maximum ON Current of 670mA/mm at a threshold voltage of
-1.5V.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors acknowledge the VLSI design laboratory and
research centre, Department of ECE, Karunya University for
providing the necessary facilities for carrying out this project
work.

REFERENCES
[1] D.Shibata.,H.Ishida.,H.Matsuo.,M.Li.,M.Yanagihara.,N.Batta.D.Ueda
and ,Y.Ueda and Y.Uemoto, “8300V blocking Voltage AlGaN/GaN
power HFET with thick poly-AIN passivation,” in IEDM M.tech,Dig
. pp861-864,December 2007.
[2] A.Saxler, M.Moore, P.M.Chavarkar,P.Smith, S.Shepherd, T.Wisleder
U.K.Mishra ,and Y.F Wu,“30-W/mm GaN HEMTs by field plate op-
timization ,” IEEE Electron Device Lett.,Vol.25,n0.3,pp.117-119 Ma-
2004.
[3] A.V.Vertiatchikh and L.F.Eastman, “Effect of the surface and barrier
defects on the GaN/AlGaN HEMT low-frequency noise performanc-
e, “IEEE Electron Device Lett., vol.24, no.9 , pp-535-537 ,September
2007.
[4] H.Hasegawa, T.Hazhizume, T.Inagaki and S. Ootomo, “mechanica-
isms of current collapse and gate leakage currents in AlGaN/GaN
heterostructure field effect transistors,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. Micro-
electron process.phenom.,vol.21.no.4.pp-1844-1855,July 2003
[5] A.Tazzoli, E.Zannoni,,F.Danesin, F.Rampazzo,F.Zannon, G.Menegh-
ghess and G.Verzellesi. “ Reliability of GaN high electron mobility tr-
ansistors:State of the art and perspectives “IEEE Trans. Device Mater
Rei.,vol.8.no.2,pp.332-343,June 2008.
[6] I. Omura, K. Tsuda, M. Kuraguchi, T. Ogura and W. Saito, ”I nfluen-
ce of surface defect charge at AlGaN–GaN-HEMT upon Schottky G-
ate leakage current and breakdown voltage ,” IEEE Trans Electron
Devices, vol.51, no. 11, pp. 1913-1917.November 2004.
493
[7] I. Omura, K.Tsuda, M. Kuragachi, W. Saito and Y.Takada,”High
breakdown voltage undoped AlGaN-GaN power HEMT on sapphire
Substrate and its demonstration for DC-DC converter application,”
IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol.51, no. 11, pp. 1913- 1917 , No-
vember 2004.
[8] B. Yang, G.D. Wilk, J. Bude and S. Halder.(2005) “ GaN metal oxide
semiconductor high-electron transistor with atomic layer deposited
Al2O3 a s gate dielectric,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 86, no. 6, pp. 063 5
01-1-063 501-3,January 2005.
[9] D. Brown, L. Shen, N. Fichtenbaum, S. Keller, and U.K. Mishra,”p-
lasma treatment for leakage reduction in AlGaN/Gan and GaN Sc-
hottky contacts” IEEE Electron Device Lett, vol. 29. no. 4,pp.297-2
99,April 2008.
[10] J.C Roberts, J.W. Chung, and T. Palacios,” Effect of gate leakage in
the subthreshold characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs,” IEEE Ele-
ctron Device Lett, vol. 29, no.11, pp. 1196-1198,November 2008
[11] J. Kotani, M. Tajima,S. Kasai, and T. Hashizume,” Mechanism of
surface conduction in the vicinity of Schottky gates on AlGaN/GaN
heterostructures,” Appl.Phys.Lett., vol. 91, no. 9, pp. 093 501-1-093
501-3,August 2007.
[12] T.H. Ishikawa, T. Jimbo, and Y. Sano,” Surface passivation effec-
ects on AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors with SiO2,
Si3N4 and SiliconOxynitride,”Appl.Phys.Lett.,vol.84,no.4 pp.613-
615,January 2004.