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Correlation between the whole small recess offset and electrical performance of InP-based HEMTs  PDF

  • GONG Hang 1,2
  • ZHOU Fu-Gui 1,2
  • FENG Rui-Ze 1,2
  • FENG Zhi-Yu 1,2
  • LIU Tong 1
  • SHI Jing-Yuan 1,2
  • SU Yong-Bo 1,2
  • JIN Zhi 1,2
1. High-Frequency High-Voltage Device and Integrated Circuits Center, Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; 2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), Beijing 100049, China

CLC: TN385

Updated:2025-02-27

DOI:10.11972/j.issn.1001-9014.2025.01.006

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Abstract

In this work, we investigate the impact of the whole small recess offset on DC and RF characteristics of InP high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). Lg = 80 nm HEMTs are fabricated with a double-recessed gate process. We focus on their DC and RF responses, including the maximum transconductance (gm_max), ON-resistance (RON), current-gain cutoff frequency (fT), and maximum oscillation frequency (fmax). The devices have almost same RON. The gm_max improves as the whole small recess moves toward the source. However, a small gate to source capacitance (Cgs) and a small drain output conductance (gds) lead to the largest fT, although the whole small gate recess moves toward the drain leads to the smaller gm_max. According to the small-signal modeling, the device with the whole small recess toward drain exhibits an excellent RF characteristics, such as fT = 372 GHz and fmax = 394 GHz. This result is achieved by paying attention to adjust resistive and capacitive parasitics, which play a key role in high-frequency response.

Introduction

III-V compound semiconductors, represented by InP, have recently emerged as a technology of choice for Tera-Hz (THz) applications due to their low noise, low power consumption and high gain performance

1. Northrop Grumman Space Technology first implemented the device with maximum oscillation frequency (fmax exceeding 1 THz in 20072. In addition, their group successfully pushed the InP HEMT amplifier technology to 850 GHz for the first time in 20143. Currently, the record for current-gain cutoff frequency (fT) is 750 GHz @ gate length (Lg) = 20 nm4 and fmax is 1.5 THz @ Lg = 25 nm5. Therefore, it is imperative to scale the physical gate length (Lg) to improve the frequency response of the device. However, the Lg cannot be reduced indefinitely. According to delay-time analysis6, as the Lg decreases, the transit time under the gate τtext decreases sharply, resulting in a sharp increase in the proportion of extrinsic channel-charging delay τtext. Therefore, reducing τtext is another means to improve the device performance.

τtext is related to the parasitic resistance and parasitic capacitance. For the parasitic resistance, in addition to use multiple heavily doped cap layers

78,it is to reduce the width of the gate recess to minimize parasitic series resistances, such as the source and drain resistance (RS and RD9. The extrinsic capacitance can be decreased by increasing the spacing of gate recess or making a cavity structure10.

The gate recess process is the most critical process for InP HEMTs manufacturing, which has a significant impact on parasitic series resistances and capacitance. Kim et al. studied the effects of the side-recess spacing (Lside), reporting that increasing Lside has a large impact on the subthreshold characteristics of the device due to a significant reduction of the gate leakage current and an improvement in its electrostatic integrity

11. Both Samnoun et al.12 and Shinoharal et al.13 investigated the asymmetric gate recess technology, reporting that increase of the drain side recess (LRD) improves the fmax due to the reduction of output conductance gds and capacitance Cgd. In addition, Suemitsu et al14. and Kim et al15. developed a two-step-recessed gate process that improves high-speed performance.

However, seldom people have studied the impact of the asymmetric gate recess technology on two-step-recessed gate process. Therefore, it is imperative to carefully investigate the impact of the whole small recess offset in a double-recessed gate process on improving the high-frequency characteristics of InP HEMTs.

1 Process technology

Table 1 shows the Gas Source Molecular Beam Epitaxy (GSMBE)-grown epitaxial layer structure on 3 inch semi-insulating InP (100) substrates that is used in this paper. In order to suppress the kink effect, the channel features a lattice-matched InxGa1-xAs with an indium content of 53%. In addition, a multi-layer cap structure that combines a heavily Si-doped multi-layer cap (In0.65Ga0.35As/In0.53Ga0.47As/ln0.52Al0.48As) were used to minimize a tunneling resistance associated with the barrier layer between the cap and channel layer. The concentration of Si-doping to a multi-layer cap is 3.0×1019, 1.0×1019, and 1.0×1019 cm-2 respectively. The 4-nm InP layer acts as an effective gate recess etch-stopper. Hall measurements were carried out at room temperature, showing the carrier mobility of over 10 000 cm2/(Vs) and the two-dimensional (2-DEG) sheet density of 3.26×1012 cm-2.

Table 1  Epitaxial layer structures of the InGaAs HEMTs that are fabricated in this paper
表1  本文所做的InGaAs HEMT的外延层结构
N++ CapInGaAs, x = 0.6510 nm
N+ Cap InAlAs, x = 0.53 15 nm
N+ Cap InAlAs, x = 0.52 15 nm
Stopper InP 4 nm
Barrier InAlAs, x = 0.52 8 nm
δ-doping Si -
Spacing InAlAs, x = 0.52 3 nm
Channel InGaAs, x = 0.53 15 nm
Buffer InAlAs, x = 0.52 500 nm
3 Inch Semi-insulating InP (100) Substrate

In order to avoid the degradation of the epitaxial structure by high temperature, the temperature of wafer in the whole fabrication process is lower than 300 ℃. Similar to our pervious work

16, mesa isolation is achieved by using multiple acids to successively etch the epitaxial layer to the buffer layer. After device isolation, source-drain metal electrodes are formed by Ti/Pt/Au(15 nm/15 nm/50 nm) with thermal annealing. The distance between source and drain electrode was designed to be 2.4 μm. The double-recessed gate process used to fabricate the T-shaped gates was as follows. Firstly, a SiO2 thin film was deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to improve adherence of photoresist. And the opening size of the SiO2 mask was used to control the width of large gate recess. Next, the SiO2 mask was etched by reactive ion etching (RIE) using CF4 plasma after defining the gate-recess region by electronic beam lithography (EBL). After RIE, the InGaAs cap layer was removed by a mix solution of citric acid (C6H8O7) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to form the large gate recess, where it was measured about 500 nm.

To abtain a small gate recess, a e-beam gate process was developed, which is shown in Table 1. The PMMA/Al/UVIII e-beam stack layers were used to define the gate and small gate recess. In order to avoid the miscible of the two photoresist layers, the metal Al layer is used for isolation, and it is easily soluble in alkaline developer. The top UVIII resist was exposed by a small dose and wide line. After that, the gate head was determined by TMAH development and rinsed in DI water. Subsequently, the gate foot was defined on a single layer of PMMA resist and was exposed by a big dose and narrow line. The InAlAs cap layers were etched by H3PO4-solution down to the InP layer acting as an etch-stopped layer, where the small recess was measured about 100 nm. After the formation of the small recess, Ti/Pt/Au (3 nm/25 nm/350 nm) metals were evaporated and lifted off to form the T-shaped gate. The length of gate foot was 80 nm, and the gate stem was adjusted to be 250 nm to alleviate parasitic capacitances.

The whole small recess could be located at the large recess center, or with an offset toward source/drain, where the position of gate metals was in the middle of the small recess. The offsets from large recess center were 0.0 µm (type A), - 0.1 µm (type B), and + 0.1 µm (type C).

Finally, these devices were covered with a 20-nm-thick Si3N4 dielectric film by PECVD (280 ℃). The SEM image of the cross section of the fabricated device is shown in Fig. 1, which is the whole small recess toward source.

  

  

  

  

Fig. 1 The EBL process for T-gate fabrication and small gate recess (The layers below the InP etch-stopped layer are not shown)

图1 用于T栅极制造和小栅极凹槽的EBL工艺(未显示InP蚀刻停止层下方的层)

Fig. 2  SEM image of the cross section of the fabricated device with the whole small recess toward source (type B), where the large gate recess was measured about 500 nm and the small recess was measured about 100 nm

图 2  所制造器件横截面的SEM图像,整个小凹槽朝向源极(B型),其中大栅极凹槽测量值约为500 nm,小凹槽测量值约为100 nm

2 DC & microwave characteristics

DC characteristics of devices were measured by an HP4142 semiconductor parameter analyzer. Figure 3(a) shows the typical output characteristics of the InP-based InGaAs/InAlAs HEMTs with 80-nm gate length and 50 μm × 2 gate width. These devices exhibit good pinchoff and excellent current saturation characteristics up to VDS = 1.2 V. The type A device exhibits a better drain current driving capability (ID_max). These devices exhibit the almost same ON-resistance (RON), which is about 0.70 Ω·mm. This is because the ohmic contact and access resistance components are the same during the whole small recess offset. The drain and source resistances (RD and RS) are estimated from dc-measurements (RS + RD ≈ 0.546 Ω·mm), it can be also extracted from small signal equivalent circuit (SSEC) using a cold FET method

16.

Figure 3(b) shows the measured transconductance (gm) of the Lg = 80 nm devices as a function of IDS at a drain bias of 0.8 V. As the IDS increases, the gm increases firstly up to the gm_max and than decreases gradually. The type B device with the whole small recess toward source exhibits the largest gm_max, which is 1105 mS/mm. The best characteristic arises from the smaller RS.

(a)  

(b)  

Fig. 3 Partial DC and RF characteristics of InP HEMT:(a) DC characteristics of the InGaAs/InAlAs HEMTs with the whole small recess offset, and (b) the measured transconductance (gm) of the devices as a function of IDS, for the value of VDS = 0.8 V (Lg = 80 nm, Wg = 50 µm × 2 )

图3 InP HEMT的部分直流以及射频特性:(a)具有整个小凹槽偏移的InGaAs/InAlAs HEMT的直流特性,以及(b)测量到的器件跨导(gm)作为IDS的函数,其中VDS = 0.8 V(Lg = 80 nm, Wg = 50 µm × 2 )

Figure 4 shows the dependence of the DC drain conductance (gds_dc) on appiled VDS. The VGS takes the voltage value corresponding to the gm_max. When VDS increases, the gds_dc of these devices decreases sharply at first and then decreases slowly. When VDS is greater than 0.6 V, the gds_dc of type C always keeps a trend of being less than that of type A and type B. Because gds_dc is obtained from ∂IDS/∂VDS and gds is obtained from Re(Y22) in the S-parameters, gds and gds_dc are related, which is consistent with the result of the parameters extraction below. From Eq. (2), a smaller gds will contribute to improving the fmax.

Fig. 4  Dependence of DC drain conductance on applied VDS with different structures

图4  不同结构的直流漏极电导对所加VDS 值的变化

The microwave characteristics of our representative Lg = 80 nm In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.52Al0.48As HEMTs are characterized from 0.1 to 50 GHz, using an Agilent precision network analyzer (PNA) system with off-wafer calibration. Pad parasitics are subtracted from the measured S-parameters using on-wafer OPEN and SHORT pads with identical geometry to the device pads. Figure 5 shows measured (symbols) and small-signal modeled (solid lines) H21, MAG/MSG, and U versus frequency for these devices with the whole small recess offset. Using the de-embedded S-parameters, we build a conventional small-signal model, based on our previous research

17. The bias condition is at VDS = 0.8 V. And VGS takes the voltage value corresponding to the gm_max. From the de-embedded S-parameters, the values of fT could be obtain by extrapolating H21 with a slope of -20 dB/decade and the values of fmax are estimated from the small signal model. It is good that such a combination of fT = 372 GHz and fmax = 394 GHz is demonstrated from the type C device with the whole small recess toward drain, at a relatively small value of VDS = 0.8 V and VGS = - 0.4 V.

(a)  

(b)  

(c)  

Fig. 5 Measured (symbols) and small-signal modeled (lines) RF gains [ |h21|, U and maximum available gain (MAG/MSG) ] versus frequency with the Lg = 80 nm InGaAs/InAlAs HEMTs . The offsets from large recess center were 0.0 µm (type A), - 0.1 µm (type B), and + 0.1 µm (type C). The bias conditions were near the gm peak gate voltage and at VDS = 0.8 V

图5 使用 Lg = 80 nm InGaAs/InAlAs HEMT测量的和小信号建模RF增益 [|h21|、U和最大可用增益 (MAG/MSG)] 与频率的关系。 距大凹槽中心的偏移量为 0.0 µm(A 型)、- 0.1 µm(B 型)和 + 0.1 µm(C 型)。 偏置条件接近gm峰值栅极电压且VDS = 0.8 V

Figure 6 plots the extracted fT as a function of IDS for these devices at VDS = 0.8 V, which consists with the gm against IDS in Fig. 3(b). The type C device have the largest fT of all fT - IDS characteristics. At an IDS of approximately 100 mA/mm which is a typical choice of the bias condition for most of the LNA designs, the type C device displays fT over 275 GHz.

Fig. 6  Extracted fT against IDS of Lg = 80 nm InGaAs/InAlAs HEMTs at VDS = 0.8 V with different structures

图6  不同结构的Lg = 80 nm InGaAs/InAlAs HEMT 在VDS = 0.8 V下针对IDS提取的fT

The fT and fmax can be expressed as:

fT=gmi2π{ (Cgs+Cgd)[1+gds(Rs+Rd)]+Cgdgmi(Rs+Rd)} (1)
fmax=fT4gds(Rg+Ri+Rs)+2CgdCgs(CgdCgs+gmi(Ri+Rs)) . (2)

Table 2 shows the small-signal modeling parameters for different structures, including RSRDgmiCgsCgd, and gds. Compared with type A and type B, type C has the smallest capacitance Cgs. This is because the type C device with the whole small recess toward drain results in smaller extrinsic capacitance. At the same time, according to Table 2 and Fig. 4 shows that the type C has the smallest gds. Although the gmi of type C is the smallest, the parasitic resistance of the three devices is almost the same, and combined with the influence of other parameters, the type C finally obtains the largest fT. In terms of fmax, it depends on the combined infulence of several parameters. The type C device obtains the largest fmax due to the small gds and large fT . Therefore, it should be finally emphasized that the device with the whole small recess toward drain in a double-recessed gate process could improve the high-frequency characteristics.

Table 2  Small-signal model parameters of the Lg=80 nm InGaAs/InAlAs HEMTs at VDS=0.8 V, with different structures.
表2  不同结构的Lg=80 nm InGaAs/InAlAs HEMT在VDS =0.8 V时的小信号模型参数
SymbolType AType BType C
VGS [V] -0.50 -0.45 -0.40
Cgs [fF/mm] 418 432 388
Cgd [fF/mm] 103 97 99
RS [Ω·mm] 0.159 0.149 0.169
RD [Ω·mm] 0.387 0.397 0.377
gds [mS/mm] 305.5 304.5 240
gmi [mS/mm] 1 513 1 566 1 487
fT_meas [GHz] 356 349 372
fmax_model [GHz] 331 336 394
Table 3  Related device performance comparison
表3  相关器件性能对比
Lg(nm)gm,max(mS/mm)fT(GHz)fmax(GHz)TimeRef
75 1 950 270 910 2017 19
100 1 700 300 700 2022 20
70 1 600 310 540 2014 21
75 1 331 260 800 2021 12

3 Conclusion

In summary, we experimentally investigate the impact of the whole small recess offset on the lattice-matched InP-based HEMTs in a double-recessed gate process, where Lg = 80 nm. These devices exhibit the same RON, and the device with the whole small recess toward source has the largest gm_max due to a smaller Rs. For RF responses of these devices, the device with the whole small recess toward drain achieves an excellent characteristic of fT = 372 GHz, and fmax = 394 GHz. In the following research, the gm of the device will be further improved to increase the fT by using a channel with Indium-rich composition.

4 Acknowledgement

This work was supported by Development of Terahertz Multi-user RF Transceiver System (Z21110000 4421012). The authors would like to thank Yan-kui Li for his assistance during the measurements. We thank Engineer Feng Yang for his discussion on the process and Professor Ding Peng for his guidance.

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