CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
HISTORY
DEVICE STRUCTURE
FABRICATION
WORKING PRINCIPLE
TYPES OF HEMTS
GROWTH
CHARACTERSTICS
ADVANTAGES
APPLICATIONS
CONCLUSION
 INTRODUCTION
 High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) have emerged
as a promising candidate for microwave (f > 1 GHz) power
amplification with applications ranging from satellite links to
wireless communications, from highways to electronic
warfare.

 HEMTs were primarily based on AlGaAs/GaAs,

AlGaAs/InGaAs, AlInAs/InGaAs and related epitaxial films
grown on GaAs or InP substrates.
 The HEMT is also known as MODFET (Modulation-
doped FET), TEGFET (Two-dimensional Electron Gas
FET), SDHT (Selectively Doped Heterostructure
Transistor) or simply, HFET (Heterojunction FET).

 The unique feature of the HEMT is channel formation

from carriers accumulated along a grossly asymmetric
heterojunction i.e. a junction between a heavily doped
high band gap and a lightly doped low band gap region.
 HISTORY
 The physics of carrier transport parallel to a heterojunction
was first considered in 1969.
 First demonstrated in AlGaAs/GaAs hetero junctions in
1979, and applied to demonstrate a HEMT in 1980. Electron
mobility enhancement at AlGaN/GaN heterojunction was
first reported in 1991.
 Enhancement was attributed to the 2D nature of the
electrons, based on observations of mobility increase
with lowering of the temperature.
 DEVICE STRUCTURE
 We have fabricated AlGaN/GaN HFETs with the
source-to-drain spacing from 2 µm to 7 µm, the gate
length from 0.25 µm to 5 µm and the total gate width
from 50 µm to 150 µm (2×25 µm to 2×75 µm).

 This reduces the parasitic source inductance and

improves thermal dissipation.
fig. of HEMT device
 FABRICATION
 The Substrate:- Sapphire (Al2O3) and SiC are the most
popular substrate materials used currently. Sapphire
substrates are cheaper for GaN growth than SiC.

 The Contacts:- The shape of the gate contact is

crucial to device performance. T- or Y shaped
cross-sections are employed.
 Growth of the semiconductor epitaxial and insulator
layers.
 Photolithography for ohmic contact openings.
 Ohmic contact metallization.
 Rapid Thermal Annealing (RTA) of ohmic contacts.
 Photolithography for device isolation level.
 Reactive ion etching or ion implantation for device
isolation.
 WORKING PRINCIPLE
 Charge transfer takes place across the interface to equalize

the Fermi energy on both sides. Electrons from the donor

impurities of the highly doped n-type Ga1-xAlxAs are

transferred to the conduction band of the nearly intrinsic p-

type GaAs.

 Positively charged donor ions are therefore left near the

interface on the n-type side and negatively charged acceptor

ions are left near the interface on the p-type side

 TYPES OF HEMTS
 Lattice-matched HEMTs: same lattice constant

 Non-lattice matched or pseudomorphic

HEMT (pHEMT): slightly different lattice constants

 metamorphic HEMT (mHEMT): a buffer layer is

grown between materials with different lattice constant.
 GaN HEMT technology
development
2009

INTEGRATION
-Thermal management
-Assembly
-Packaging
MMIC -System impact
-Design
-Fabrication
-Test
DEVICES
-Device processing
-High voltage passives
-Device modeling
-Reliability & robustness evaluation
EPITAXY
-GaN HEMT epi wafer growth
-Advanced materials
2005
SUBSTRATES
-Material selection: SiC, Si, Sapphire
-SiC material quality
-Diameter expansion 2’’ to 3’’
 CHARACTERSTICS
 DRAIN CURRENT
CHARACTERSTIC
S:

The measured DC
characteristics of a
power HEMT are
shown in Fig.
 Negative resistance
 These devices show negative resistance
for high currents and voltages.
 ADVANTAGES
 Used in Analog circuits as amplifiers
 Excellent high frequency characteristics
(several GHz)
 Low noise
 High power-gain
 High efficiency
 APPLICATIONS
 Thermal Optimization of GaN HEMT Transistor Power
Amplifiers Using New Self-heating Large-signal Model.
 High-Power, High-Efficiency GaN HEMT Power
Amplifiers for 4G Applications.
 GaN-Based High Electron-Mobility Transistors for
Microwave and RF Control Applications.
 CONCLUSION
 High power density
 Very good high frequency characteristics
 Low on-resistance
 High temperature stability (wide
bandgap materials)
THANKS
…
and
Queries.
.?