Observation and mechanism of kink effect in depletion-mode AlGaAs/GaAs and AlGaAs/GaInAs HEMTs

Author

Thomasian, A. ; Rezazadeh, Ali A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., King´s Coll. London, UK

Volume

25

Issue

5

fYear

1989

fDate

3/2/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

351

Lastpage

353

Abstract

The appearance and the mechanism of a kink effect (a sudden rise in the drain current) in the output I/V characteristics of depletion-mode conventional AlGaAs/GaAs and pseudomorphic AlGaAs/GaInAs high-electron-mobility transistors is reported for the first time. The kink is postulated to arise from impact ionisation in the 2-DEG. The generated electrons drift towards the drain, while generated holes are prevented from entering the AlGaAs layer by the heterojunction barrier, and are injected into the GaAs buffer layer. These holes subsequently combine with electrons on the source side of the channel.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; high electron mobility transistors; impact ionisation; indium compounds; 2-DEG; AlGaAs-GaAs; AlGaAs-GaInAs; GaAs buffer layer; HEMTs; III-V semiconductors; breakdown mechanism; depletion-mode; drain current increase; heterojunction barrier; high-electron-mobility transistors; impact ionisation; kink effect; output I/V characteristics; two dimensional electron gas;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electronics Letters

Publisher

iet

ISSN

0013-5194

Type

jour

DOI

10.1049/el:19890244

Filename

19762