Off-state electrical breakdown of AlGaN/GaN/Ga(Al)N HEMT heterostructure grown on Si(111)

Electrical breakdown characteristics of AlxGa1−xN buffer layers grown on Si(111) are investigated by varying the carbon concentration ([C]: from ∼1016 to 1019 cm−3), Al-composition (x = 0 and 7%), and buffer thickness (from 1.6 to 3.1 μm). A quantitative relationship between the growth conditions and carbon concentration ([C]) is established, which can guide to grow the Ga(Al)N layer with a given [C]. It is found that the carbon incorporation is sensitive to the growth temperature (T) (exponential relationship between [C] and 1/T) and the improvement of breakdown voltage by increasing [C] is observed to be limited when [C] exceeding 1019 cm−3, which is likely due to carbon self-compensation. By increasing the highly resistive (HR) Al0.07Ga0.93N buffer thickness from 1.6 to 3.1 μm, the leakage current is greatly reduced down to 1 μA/mm at a bias voltage of 1000 V.