Height-selective etching for regrowth of self-aligned contacts using MBE
Advanced III-V transistors require unprecedented low-resistance contacts in order to simultaneously scale bandwidth, f max and f t with the physical active region [M.J.W. Rodwell, M. Le, B. Brar, in: Proceedings of the IEEE, 96, 2008, p. 748]. Low-resistance contacts have been previously demonstrated using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), which provides active doping above 4 x 10 19 cm -3 and permits in-situ metal deposition for the lowest resistances [U. Singisetti, M.A. Wistey, J.D. Zimmerman, B.J. Thibeault, M.J.W. Rodwell, A.C. Gossard, S.R. Bank, Appl. Phys. Lett., submitted]. But MBE is a blanket deposition technique, and applying MBE regrowth to deep-submicron lateral device dimensions is difficult even with advanced lithography techniques. We present a simple method for selectively etching undesired regrowth from the gate or mesa of a III-V MOSFET or laser, resulting in self-aligned source/drain contacts regardless of the device dimensions. This turns MBE into an effectively selective area growth technique.
N-polar GaN-based MIS-HEMTs for mixed signal applications
GaN-based transistors are attractive for the next-generation RF power and mixed signal electronics due to their high breakdown field and high carrier saturation velocity. III-N high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) fabricated on the N-face of GaN are well-suited to address the problems of poor electron confinement and high ohmic contact resistance in the highly scaled transistors. At 4 GHz, N-polar metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS)-HEMTs with a gate length of 0.7 µm exhibited a highest output power density (Pout) of 8.1 W/mm and a highest power-added efficiency (PAE) of 71%, while a Pout of 4.2 W/mm and a PAE of 49% were achieved at 10 GHz. A high speed N-polar MIS-HEMT fabricated with a gate-first self-aligned InGaN-based ohmic contact regrowth technology was characterized, demonstrating an ultra-low contact resistance of 23 Ω-µm and a state-of-the-art fT·LG product of 16.8 GHz-µm with a gate length of 130 nm.
Threshold current analysis of compressive strain (0-1.8%) in low-threshold, long-wavelength quantum well lasers
A comprehensive study of the effect of compressive strain on the threshold current performance of long-wavelength (1.5 mu m) quantum-well (QW) lasers is presented. Model predictions of threshold currents in such devices identify QW thickness as a parameter that must be considered in optimizing laser performance when Auger currents are present. Experimental comparisons between strained and unstrained devices reveal strain-induced reductions in internal transparency current density per QW from 66 to 40 A/cm/sup 2/, an increase in peak differential modal gain from 0.12 to 0.23 cm/A, and evidence for the elimination of intervalence band absorption as compressive strain increases from 0 to 1.8%. However, most of these improvements arise in the first approximately 1% of compressive strain. To fabricate low-threshold 1.5- mu m buried heterostructure (BH) devices in InP using the strained QW active regions an optimized design which shows that threshold current is at its lowest when the stripe width is approximately 0.6-0.7 mu m is derived. Results for uncoated BH lasers are reported. >