Abstract
In this work, the authors have propounded a novel Gallium Nitride High Electron Mobility Transistor (GaN-HEMT) structure and have analyzed its DC, RF and noise performance parameters. The DC characteristics reveal a high ON-state current in the order of 10−2 A/mm complemented by a near ideal sub-threshold swing of 70 mV/decade. High values of cut-off frequency (ft = 126 GHz) and maximum oscillation frequency (fmax = 224 GHz) are obtained which indicate high frequency range of operation. A minimum noise figure in the order of 10−5 dB has been achieved for lower frequencies of operation that remains considerably low even beyond 30 GHz (1.7 dB at 45 GHz and 4 dB at 100 GHz), indicating low-noise performance at practical operational frequencies. Further, a resistive load inverter based on GaN-HEMT has been proposed to supplant existing Silicon-based Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology which suffers from extensive scaling limitations. A thorough analysis of the inverter circuit has been carried out through mixed-mode simulation and the effect of the composition of the barrier layer in the GaN-HEMT, as well as the supply voltage of the inverter has been reported. With Si-technology reaching its bottleneck, GaN based device circuits will surely foster further research in this domain.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amano H, Baines Y, Beam E, Borga M, Bouchet T, Chalker PR, Charles M et al (2018) The 2018 GaN power electronics roadmap. J Phys D: Appl Phys 51(16):163001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aaaf9d
Ambacher O et al (1999) Two-dimensional electron gases induced by spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization charges in N- and Ga-face AIGaN/GaN heterostructures. J Appl Phys 85:3222–3233. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.369664
Belostotski L, Haslett JW (2008) Two-port noise figure optimization of source-degenerated cascode CMOS LNAs. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 55:125–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-008-9142-4
Brederlow R, Weber W, Schmitt-Landsiedel D, Thewes R (1999) Fluctuations of the low frequency noise of MOS transistors and their modeling in analog and RF-circuits. In: International Electron Devices Meeting 1999 Technical Digest (Cat. No. 99CH36318), Washington, DC, pp 159–162. https://doi.org/10.1109/iedm.1999.823869
Cao W et al (2014) Subthreshold-swing physics of tunnel field-effect transistors. Am Inst Phys. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4881979
Chen KJ et al (2017) GaN-on-Si power technology: devices and applications. IEEE Trans Electron Devices 64(3):779–795. https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2017.2657579
Durmus Y, Yilmaz D, Toprak A, Turhan AB, Sen OA, Ozbay E (2015) AlGaN/GaN HEMT with fT:100 GHz and fmax:128 GHz. In: 2015 10th European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference (EuMIC), Paris, pp 199–202. https://doi.org/10.1109/eumic.2015.7345103
He G, Sun Z (2012) High-k gate dielectrics for CMOS technology. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9783527646340
Huang S (2015) High-temperature low-damage gate recess technique and ozone-assisted ALD-grown Al2O3 gate dielectric for high-performance normally-off GaN MIS-HEMT. In: Technical Digest-International Electron Devices Meeting, IEDM. pp 17.4.1–17.4.4. https://doi.org/10.1109/iedm.2014.7047071
Khalil I, Liero A, Rudolph M, Lossy R, Heinrich W (2008) GaN HEMT potential for low-noise highly linear RF applications. IEEE Microw Wirel Compon Lett 18(9):605–607. https://doi.org/10.1109/LMWC.2008.2002458
Kuhn KJ (2012) Considerations for ultimate CMOS scaling. IEEE Trans Electron Devices 59(7):1813–1828. https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2012.2193129
Kuzmik J et al (2010) Proposal and performance analysis of normally off n++ GaN/InAlN/AlN/GaN HEMTs with 1-nm-thick InAlN barrier. IEEE Trans Electron Devices 57(9):2144–2154. https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2010.2055292
Li H, Yao C, Fu L, Zhang X, Wang J (2016) Evaluations and applications of GaN HEMTs for power electronics. In: 2016 IEEE 8th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (IPEMC-ECCE Asia), Hefei, pp 563–569. https://doi.org/10.1109/ipemc.2016.7512348
Lu W, Kumar V, Schwindt R, Piner E, Adesida I (2002) DC, RF, and microwave noise performances of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on sapphire substrates. IEEE Trans Microw Theory Tech 50(11):2499–2504. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2002.804619
Mathur N (2002) Beyond the silicon roadmap. Nat Publ Gr. https://doi.org/10.1038/419573a
Mishra UK, Parikh P, Wu Y-F (2002) AlGaN/GaN HEMTs-an overview of device operation and applications. Proc IEEE 90(6):1022–1031. https://doi.org/10.1109/jproc.2002.1021567
Mondal S, Paul S, Sarkar A (2018) Investigation of the Effect of Barrier Layer Engineering on DC and RF Performance of Gate-Recessed AlGaN/GaN HEMT. In: Mandal J, Mukhopadhyay S, Dutta P, Dasgupta K (eds) Methodologies and Application Issues of Contemporary Computing Framework. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2345-4_14
Moradpour M, Lai A, Serpi A, Gatto G (2017) Multi-objective optimization of gate driver circuit for GaN HEMT in electric vehicles. In: IECON 2017-43rd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Beijing, pp 1319–1324. https://doi.org/10.1109/iecon.2017.8216224
Pal A, Sarkar A (2014) Analytical study of dual material surrounding gate MOSFET to suppress short-channel effects (SCEs). Eng Sci Technol Int J 17(4):205–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jestch.2014.06.002
Rengel R, Martin MJ (2010) Electronic transport in laterally asymmetric channel MOSFET for RF analog applications. IEEE Trans Electron Devices 57(10):2448–2454. https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2010.2056290
Simoen E, Dierickx B, Claeys CL, Declerck GJ (1992) Explaining the amplitude of RTS noise in submicrometer MOSFETs. IEEE Trans Electron Devices 39(2):422–429. https://doi.org/10.1109/16.121702
Tang C, Shi J (2013) Influence of acceptor-like traps in the buffer on current collapse and leakage of E-mode AlGaN/GaN MISHFETs. Semicond Sci Tech 28:5011. https://doi.org/10.1088/0268-1242/28/11/115011
Thompson SE, Parthasarathy S (2006) Moore’s law: the future of Si microelectronics. Mater Today 9(6):20–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1369-7021(06)71539-5(ISSN 1369-7021)
Waltereit P, Bronner W, Quay R, Dammann M, Cäsar M, Müller S, Reiner R et al (2013) GaN HEMTs and MMICs for space applications. Semicond Sci Technol 28(7):074010. https://doi.org/10.1088/0268-1242/28/7/074010
Wang W et al (2018) Improvement of power performance of GaN HEMT by using quaternary InAlGaN barrier. IEEE J Electron Devices Soc 6:360–364. https://doi.org/10.1109/JEDS.2018.2807185
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Paul, S., Mondal, S. & Sarkar, A. Characterization and analysis of low-noise GaN-HEMT based inverter circuits. Microsyst Technol 27, 3957–3965 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-019-04592-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-019-04592-z