A Novel Atomic-Level Post-Etch-Surface-Reinforcement Process for High-Performance p-GaN Gate HEMTs Fabrication

Wang, Luyu; Zhang, Penghao; Zhu, Kaiyue; Wang, Qiang; Pan, Maolin; Sun, Xin; Huang, Ziqiang; Chen, Kun; Yang, Yannan; Xie, Xinling; Huang, Hai; Hu, Xin; Xu, Saisheng; Wu, Chunlei; Wang, Chen; Xu, Min; Zhang, David Wei

doi:10.3390/nano13162275

Open AccessCommunication

A Novel Atomic-Level Post-Etch-Surface-Reinforcement Process for High-Performance p-GaN Gate HEMTs Fabrication

by

Luyu Wang

¹,

Penghao Zhang

¹,

Kaiyue Zhu

²,

Qiang Wang

¹

,

Maolin Pan

¹,

Xin Sun

¹

,

Ziqiang Huang

¹,

Kun Chen

^1,3

,

Yannan Yang

¹,

Xinling Xie

¹,

Hai Huang

¹,

Xin Hu

¹,

Saisheng Xu

¹,

Chunlei Wu

^1,3,

Chen Wang

^1,3,*,

Min Xu

^1,3,* and

David Wei Zhang

^1,3,*

¹

State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, Shanghai Institute of Intelligent Electronics & Systems, School of Microelectronics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China

²

Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK

³

Shanghai Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Innovation Center Co., Ltd., Shanghai 200433, China

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Nanomaterials 2023, 13(16), 2275; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13162275

Submission received: 25 July 2023 / Revised: 4 August 2023 / Accepted: 4 August 2023 / Published: 8 August 2023

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Micro-/Nanostructures: Advanced Fabrication and Application)

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Abstract

A novel atomic-level post-etch-surface-reinforcement (PESR) process is developed to recover the p-GaN etching induced damage region for high performance p-GaN gate HEMTs fabrication. This process is composed of a self-limited surface modification step with O₂ plasma, following by an oxide removal step with BCl₃ plasma. With PESR process, the AlGaN surface morphology after p-GaN etching was comparable to the as-epitaxial level by AFM characterization, and the AlGaN lattice crystallization was also recovered which was measured in a confocal Raman system. The electrical measurement further confirmed the significant improvement of AlGaN surface quality, with one-order of magnitude lower surface leakage in a metal-semiconductor (MS) Schottky-diode and 6 times lower interface density of states (D_it) in a MIS C-V characterization. The XPS analysis of Al₂O₃/AlGaN showed that the p-GaN etching induced F-byproduct and Ga-oxide was well removed and suppressed by PESR process. Finally, the developed PESR process was successfully integrated in p-GaN gate HEMTs fabrication, and the device performance was significantly enhanced with ~20% lower of on-resistance and ~25% less of current collapse at V_ds,Q bias of 40 V, showing great potential of leverage p-GaN gate HEMTs reliability.

Keywords: etch induced damage; surface reinforcement; interface state; p-GaN gate HEMTs

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MDPI and ACS Style

Wang, L.; Zhang, P.; Zhu, K.; Wang, Q.; Pan, M.; Sun, X.; Huang, Z.; Chen, K.; Yang, Y.; Xie, X.; et al. A Novel Atomic-Level Post-Etch-Surface-Reinforcement Process for High-Performance p-GaN Gate HEMTs Fabrication. Nanomaterials 2023, 13, 2275. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13162275

AMA Style

Wang L, Zhang P, Zhu K, Wang Q, Pan M, Sun X, Huang Z, Chen K, Yang Y, Xie X, et al. A Novel Atomic-Level Post-Etch-Surface-Reinforcement Process for High-Performance p-GaN Gate HEMTs Fabrication. Nanomaterials. 2023; 13(16):2275. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13162275

Chicago/Turabian Style

Wang, Luyu, Penghao Zhang, Kaiyue Zhu, Qiang Wang, Maolin Pan, Xin Sun, Ziqiang Huang, Kun Chen, Yannan Yang, Xinling Xie, and et al. 2023. "A Novel Atomic-Level Post-Etch-Surface-Reinforcement Process for High-Performance p-GaN Gate HEMTs Fabrication" Nanomaterials 13, no. 16: 2275. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13162275

APA Style

Wang, L., Zhang, P., Zhu, K., Wang, Q., Pan, M., Sun, X., Huang, Z., Chen, K., Yang, Y., Xie, X., Huang, H., Hu, X., Xu, S., Wu, C., Wang, C., Xu, M., & Zhang, D. W. (2023). A Novel Atomic-Level Post-Etch-Surface-Reinforcement Process for High-Performance p-GaN Gate HEMTs Fabrication. Nanomaterials, 13(16), 2275. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13162275

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A Novel Atomic-Level Post-Etch-Surface-Reinforcement Process for High-Performance p-GaN Gate HEMTs Fabrication

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