Open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with auxiliary gate structure and application
Technical Field
The invention relates to an open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with an auxiliary gate structure and application thereof, and belongs to the technical field of microelectronic research.
Background
AlGaN/GaN Heterojunction Field Effect Transistors (HFETs) are important representatives of wide-bandgap semiconductor electronic devices, have the advantages of high breakdown voltage, high electron mobility and the like, and have wide application in the fields of high frequency and high power. There are also many reports on AlGaN/Ga NHFETs, such as CN107017293A, CN106876458A, CN106783961A, CN104009076A, CN 106876457A.
In addition, CN106783963a discloses an AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with a partial intrinsic GaN cap layer. The novel transistor structure is characterized in that an intrinsic GaN cap layer is introduced at the edge of a transistor gate electrode, and the intrinsic GaN cap layer can reduce the two-dimensional electron gas concentration of a conductive channel in the region so as to realize an electric field modulation effect. By generating new electric field peaks, the high electric field at the gate edge is reduced, and the electric field distribution at the surface of the transistor is more uniform. CN106783960a discloses a stepped p-GaN enhanced AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor. The transistor structure is characterized in that a p-type GaN cap layer is introduced at the edge of a transistor gate, and the thickness of the cap layer is smaller than that of a p-type GaN medium layer under the gate. The p-type GaN cap layer can reduce the two-dimensional electron gas concentration of the conducting channel in the region, and the electric field modulation effect is realized. By generating a new electric field peak, the high electric field at the edge of the gate is reduced, so that the electric field distribution on the surface of the transistor is more uniform, and the breakdown characteristic of the device is improved.
The inventor of the present invention previously disclosed a novel AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor and application thereof, in which the gate electrode is provided as an open gate structure. As a novel AlGaN/Ga NHFETs, the open gate device can simply realize the large-range regulation and control of threshold voltage by changing the width of an opening, and has wide application prospect in the field of low-power consumption A-type voltage amplifiers. However, the saturation mechanism of conventional open gate devices is related to the virtual gate formed by surface electron injection. Surface electron injection depends on the trap states of the device surface, and the amount of the surface trap states is difficult to control artificially. This means that the saturation process of conventional open gate devices is highly random, the saturation characteristics are typically poor, and an open gate device with good saturation characteristics is desired to be obtained only by mass production and screening.
Therefore, it is very urgent and important to study a novel open gate AlGaN/GaN HFETs capable of effectively improving the saturation characteristics of the device. At present, the saturation characteristics are regulated and controlled by adopting an opening grid and an auxiliary grid together, and no report is made.
Disclosure of Invention
Aiming at the defects of the prior art, the invention provides an open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with an auxiliary gate structure and application thereof.
Interpretation of the terms
Channel (channel) refers to a thin semiconductor layer between a source region and a drain region in a field effect transistor in which current flows under the control of a gate potential.
The technical scheme of the invention is as follows:
The device structure of the open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with the auxiliary gate structure is similar to that of a conventional open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor in structure, and the device structure comprises a source electrode, a drain electrode and a gate electrode positioned between the source electrode and the drain electrode, wherein the gate electrode is of a double-gate structure, the gate electrode comprises a main gate and an auxiliary gate, and the main gate comprises a transverse opening.
According to the invention, the auxiliary grid is preferably free of lateral openings.
According to the present invention, it is preferable that the auxiliary gate is located between the drain electrode and the main gate.
According to the present invention, preferably, 0< auxiliary gate length < distance between main gate and drain.
Most preferably, the distance between the main gate and the drain is 16 μm, and the auxiliary gate length is 4-10 μm.
According to the present invention, it is preferable that the auxiliary gate width=main gate width+opening width=total channel width.
According to the present invention, preferably, 0< distance between auxiliary gate-drain < distance between main gate-drain-auxiliary gate length.
According to the present invention, preferably, 0< main gate width < total channel width.
According to the present invention, preferably, 0< main gate lateral opening width < total channel width.
According to the present invention, preferably, 0< the distance between the main gate and the source is equal to or less than the distance between the main gate and the drain.
According to the present invention, the operation region of the conventional open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor is divided into a gate region and an opening region. As the gate bias increases negatively (approaching from zero to negative), the channel two-dimensional electron gas density of the gate region decreases until depletion, while the open region, because of no grid coverage, its two-dimensional electron gas density does not change with the gate bias, but still continues to conduct. At this time, the device current saturation mechanism is completely dependent on the current saturation mechanism of the opening region.
Ideally, the surface of the gate-free opening region has a floating potential, and the surface potential increases along with the channel potential in the process of increasing the drain-source voltage. Therefore, the current cannot saturate with the increase of the drain-source voltage until the channel electrons reach the saturated drift velocity. For a practical device, due to the existence of surface trap states, when a forward drain-source voltage is applied to the device, electrons are injected to the surface of the device through the source and trapped by the surface trap states, resulting in a drop in the surface potential of the device. In this way, a negative potential difference is generated between the surface and the channel, which corresponds to the presence of a negative biased dummy gate on the device surface. Along with the increase of drain-source voltage, the potential of the near-drain end of the channel is increased, and the absolute value of the potential difference with the surface virtual grid is increased. To a certain extent, the channel is pinched off, thereby realizing channel current saturation.
The formation of the dummy gate depends largely on the trap state of the device surface, which is mainly related to the material growth process, and the density, position and energy state of the trap state are difficult to control artificially and accurately. If the surface trap states are fewer, the current saturation of the device is difficult to realize, and if the surface trap states are too many, the output and leakage characteristics of the device are affected. Meanwhile, due to randomness of trap states of the surface of the device, the device with good saturation characteristics is wanted to be obtained, and the device can be screened only through mass preparation and is difficult to obtain through manual control.
The open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with the auxiliary gate structure effectively improves the saturation characteristic of the open gate device by introducing the auxiliary gate structure. The auxiliary gate is positioned between the main gate and the drain electrode, and the grid bar is not opened. When the device is in operation, the surface potential of the auxiliary gate region of the device is fixed by applying a constant bias (typically 0V or negative bias) to the auxiliary gate so that the surface potential is not changed along with the change of the channel potential. In this case, when a large forward drain-source voltage is applied to the device, the channel potential under the auxiliary gate region of the device increases. On the other hand, the surface potential of the region is fixed due to the existence of the auxiliary gate, so that a negative potential difference is formed between the auxiliary gate and the channel below, and the channel two-dimensional electron gas of the region is consumed. As the drain-source voltage increases, the channel potential below the auxiliary gate increases, a negative potential difference with larger absolute value is generated between the auxiliary gate and the channel below, more two-dimensional electron gas is consumed, and finally channel pinch-off occurs, so that the current reaches saturation.
After the auxiliary gate structure is introduced, the surface potential of the device is controlled by the auxiliary gate instead of the virtual gate formed by surface electron injection, so that the saturation process of the device is free from dependence on surface trap states. The position and the potential of the auxiliary gate are manually given, and can be freely adjusted according to specific requirements, so that the auxiliary gate is more stable and controllable than a virtual gate formed by surface electron injection, the saturation characteristic of the device is improved, and the controllability and the stability are greatly improved.
On the other hand, the open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with the auxiliary gate structure can realize various working modes by applying different potentials to the main gate and the auxiliary gate.
Mode 1-Main gate blank, only apply the gate bias of change to auxiliary gate. In the mode, the channel current of the device is regulated by an unopened auxiliary gate, which is equivalent to a traditional AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor. At this time, the gate bias has strong capability of regulating the channel current, the voltage range of the controllable channel current is smaller, and the threshold voltage is larger.
Mode 2. A varying gate bias is applied to the main gate, the auxiliary gate potential being constant at 0V. In this mode, the device channel current is regulated by the open main gate, and the auxiliary gate acts to fix the surface potential. At this time, the gate bias has weak capability of regulating the channel current, the voltage range of the controllable channel current is large, and the threshold voltage is small, which is similar to that of a conventional open gate device. But the saturation characteristics of the device will be significantly improved due to the presence of the auxiliary gate.
Mode 3. Varying gate bias is applied to the main gate, the auxiliary gate potential being constant negative. At this time, the regulation and control mode and the characteristics of the device are similar to those of the mode 2, but the channel two-dimensional electron gas in the corresponding region is consumed due to the reduction of the auxiliary gate potential, so that the channel current of the device is reduced as a whole under the same gate bias. In practical circuit applications, a smaller current means a lower dc power loss, so mode 3 is more suitable for low power consumption applications than mode 2.
According to the invention, the open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with the auxiliary gate structure is applied to the preparation of an electronic integrated circuit.
The invention is not described in detail and is in accordance with the prior art.
The invention has the beneficial effects that:
1. According to the invention, the main gate-drain electrode area which is originally covered by the electrode is introduced with the unopened auxiliary gate, after the auxiliary gate structure is introduced, the surface potential of the device can be fixed by applying zero bias voltage to the auxiliary gate, and the channel current saturation is realized by utilizing the potential difference between the auxiliary gate and the channel, so that the saturation characteristic of the device is obviously improved.
2. The invention forms a four-terminal device by the source electrode, the drain electrode, the open main grid and the auxiliary grid, and can realize various device working modes by applying different bias voltages to the open main grid and the auxiliary grid.
Drawings
Fig. 1-3 are schematic structural diagrams of AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistors of three different structures. Among them, fig. 1 is a conventional device for comparison in comparative example 1, fig. 2 is a conventional open gate device for comparison in comparative example 2, and fig. 3 is an open gate device with an auxiliary gate structure in example 1 of the present invention. Wherein S represents a device source, G represents a device gate, D represents a device drain, and G1 and G2 represent a main gate and an auxiliary gate, respectively.
Fig. 4a to 4e are current-voltage characteristic curves of AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistors in example 1 and comparative examples 1 to 2 of the present invention. The abscissa is voltage and the ordinate is current. Wherein fig. 4a is a current-voltage characteristic curve of the conventional device for comparison in comparative example 1, fig. 4b is a current-voltage characteristic curve of the conventional open gate device for comparison in comparative example 2, fig. 4c is a current-voltage characteristic curve of the open gate device having an auxiliary gate structure of example 1 of the present invention, when the device operates in mode 1, fig. 4d is a current-voltage characteristic curve of the open gate device having an auxiliary gate structure of example 1 of the present invention, when the device operates in mode 2, and fig. 4e is a current-voltage characteristic curve of the open gate device having an auxiliary gate structure of example 1, when the device operates in mode 3, the auxiliary gate bias is-1V.
Detailed Description
The invention will now be further illustrated by way of example, but not by way of limitation, with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Example 1:
The open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with the auxiliary gate structure comprises a source electrode S, a drain electrode D and a gate electrode G positioned between the source electrode S and the drain electrode D, wherein the gate electrode G is of a double-gate structure, the gate electrode G comprises a main gate G1 and an auxiliary gate G2, the main gate G1 comprises a transverse opening, and two different working areas, namely a main gate area and an opening area, are formed.
The device structure is shown in FIG. 3, the main gate length (L G1) of the device is 40 μm, the distance between the main gate and the source electrode (L G1s) is 6 μm, the distance between the main gate and the drain electrode (L c1D) is 16 μm, the total channel width (W) is 100 μm, the width of the opening region (W O) is 3 μm, the auxiliary gate length (L G2) is 10 μm, and the distance between the auxiliary gate and the drain electrode (L G2D) is 3 μm.
Example 2:
The open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with auxiliary gate structure as described in embodiment 1, except that:
The device had a main gate length (L G1) of 4 μm, a main gate-source distance (L G1S) of 6 μm, a main gate-drain distance (L G1D) of 16 μm, a total channel width (W) of 100 μm, an opening region width (W O) of 3 μm, an auxiliary gate length (L G2) of 4 μm, and an auxiliary gate-drain distance (L G2D) of 6 μm.
Example 3:
The open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with auxiliary gate structure as described in embodiment 1, except that:
the device had a main gate length (L G1) of 80 μm, a main gate-source distance (L G1S) of 10 μm, a main gate-drain distance (L G1D) of 10 μm, a total channel width (W) of 100 μm, an opening region width (W O) of 5 μm, an auxiliary gate length (L G2) of 4 μm, and an auxiliary gate-drain distance (L G2D) of 3 μm.
Example 4:
The open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with auxiliary gate structure as described in embodiment 1, except that:
The device had a main gate length (L G1) of 20 μm, a main gate-source distance (L G1S) of 6 μm, a main gate-drain distance (L G1D) of 16 μm, a total channel width (W) of 80 μm, an opening region width (W O) of 4 μm, an auxiliary gate length (L G2) of 6 μm, and an auxiliary gate-drain distance (L G2D) of 5 μm.
Comparative example 1
The gate of the conventional AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor is not opened, the auxiliary gate structure is not provided, the other parts are the same as those of the device in the embodiment 1, and the device structure is shown in fig. 1.
Comparative example 2
The conventional open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor has no auxiliary gate structure, and other parts have the same size as the device of the embodiment 1, and the device structure is shown in fig. 2.
Test examples
The open gate AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor with the auxiliary gate structure can realize various working modes by applying different potentials to the main gate and the auxiliary gate.
Mode 1-Main gate blank, only apply the gate bias of change to auxiliary gate. In the mode, the channel current of the device is regulated by an unopened auxiliary gate, which is equivalent to a traditional AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor. At this time, the gate bias has strong capability of regulating the channel current, the voltage range of the controllable channel current is smaller, and the threshold voltage is larger.
Mode 2. A varying gate bias is applied to the main gate, the auxiliary gate potential being constant at 0V. In this mode, the device channel current is regulated by the open main gate, and the auxiliary gate acts to fix the surface potential. At this time, the gate bias has weak capability of regulating the channel current, the voltage range of the controllable channel current is large, and the threshold voltage is small, which is similar to that of a conventional open gate device. But the saturation characteristics of the device will be significantly improved due to the presence of the auxiliary gate.
Mode 3. Varying gate bias is applied to the main gate, the auxiliary gate potential being constant negative. At this time, the regulation and control mode and the characteristics of the device are similar to those of the mode 2, but the channel two-dimensional electron gas in the corresponding region is consumed due to the reduction of the auxiliary gate potential, so that the channel current of the device is reduced as a whole under the same gate bias. In practical circuit applications, a smaller current means a lower dc power loss, so mode 3 is more suitable for low power consumption applications than mode 2.
Fig. 4a to 4e are current-voltage characteristic curves of the device, fig. 4a corresponds to comparative example 1, fig. 4b corresponds to comparative example 2, and fig. 4c to 4e correspond to example 1, except that the operation modes of the device are different. Fig. 4c corresponds to mode 1, fig. 4d corresponds to mode 2, and fig. 4d corresponds to mode 3 (the specific value of the auxiliary gate constant negative potential is-1V).
As can be seen from fig. 4c, when the device of example 1 is operated in mode 1, the gate bias voltage has strong regulation capability on the drain-source current, but the effective regulation range is small, and the threshold voltage is about-2.5V. At this point, the current-voltage curve of the device is very similar to the curve shown in fig. 4 a. This illustrates that, when operating in mode 1, the example 1 device is equivalent to a conventional AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor.
As can be seen from fig. 4d, when the device of example 1 is operated in mode 2, the gate bias voltage has weak regulation capability on the drain-source current, but the effective regulation range is very large, and the threshold voltage is about-36V, which is similar to the current-voltage characteristics shown in fig. 4 b. However, in fig. 4b, the saturation voltage of the device is very high at different gate bias voltages, and especially when the absolute value of the negative gate bias voltage is small, the channel current increases along an arc with the increase of the drain-source voltage, and no obvious saturation sign appears until the drain-source voltage is 20V. In contrast, in fig. 4d, the saturation voltage of the device at different gate voltages is around 2V, and the linear region and the saturation region are clearly distinguished. This shows that by introducing the auxiliary gate structure, the saturation characteristics of the open gate device are significantly improved.
As can be seen from fig. 4e, when the device of embodiment 1 is operated in mode 3, the current-voltage characteristic still shows the characteristics of weak gate bias regulation capability, large effective regulation range, low threshold voltage, good saturation characteristic, and the like, which are similar to the characteristics of the device of embodiment 1 when operated in mode 2 (fig. 4 d). The difference from the mode 2 is that when the device works in the mode 3, the channel current under the same main gate bias is reduced as a whole, and the device is more suitable for being applied to the field of low power consumption.