Effects of Nitride-Based Plasma Pretreatment Prior to SiNx Passivation in AlGaN/GaN High-Electron-Mobility Transistors on Silicon Substrates

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The effects of nitride-based plasma pretreatment on the output characteristics of AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) on silicon substrates are investigated. N2 and NH3 plasma pre-treatment methods are studied to overcome the RF dispersion phenomenon caused by nitrogen-vacancy (VN)-related defect reduction. It is found that the nitride-based plasma pretreatment is effective to overcome the RF dispersion in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si. The NH3 plasma pretreatment markedly reduced RF dispersion from 63 to 1%. This is considered to be attributable to the reduction of the effective VN-related defect density and elimination of carbon/oxide residuals on the surface of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. A NH3 plasma pretreatment prior to SiNx 100 nm passivation in the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on Si markedly improves the total output power from 15 to 18.1 dBm under the operating conditions of $V_{\text{DS}} = 15$ V/$V_{\text{GS}} = -1$ V.
2010-04-25