Effect of surface passivation on performance of AlGaN/GaN/Si HEMTs

Performance of intentionally undoped and doped AlGaN/GaN/Si high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) before and after passivation with SiO2 and Si3N4 is investigated. Hall effect measurements show higher impact of Si3N4 than SiO2 passivation on the carrier concentration increase in the channel. Improvements in DC performance of HEMTs after passivation with SiO2 and Si3N4 correspond to the changes in sheet carrier concentration. Small signal microwave characterisation shows a decrease (from 18.6 to 9 GHz) and an increase (from 18.4 to 28.8 GHz) of the current gain cut off frequency after SiO2 and Si3N4 passivation, respectively. Similar effect of passivation is found in microwave power changes––only about a half of the power is obtained after SiO2 passivation but more than doubled power results from Si3N4 passivation, measured at 2 GHz. Higher density of interface states for SiO2 than Si3N4 passivation is supposed to be responsible for these effects. However, for an optimal design of GaN-based power devices additional studies related to the interface between a passivation layer and GaN are needed.