Innovative nitride passivation for pseudomorphic GaAs HEMTs and impact on device performance

Author

Chou, Y.C. ; Nam, P. ; Li, G.P. ; Grundbacher, R. ; Ahlers, E. ; Ra, Y. ; Xu, Qi ; Oki, Aaron

Author_Institution

Microelectron. Products & Processes, TRW Space & Electron., Redondo Beach, CA

fYear

2002

fDate

2002

Firstpage

235

Lastpage

240

Abstract

A novel low temperature nitride deposition technique using high-density inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (HD-ICP-CVD) to passivate 0.15 μm pseudomorphic GaAs HEMTs has been developed for the first time. SiH₄/N₂ chemistries are used in HD-ICP-CVD for nitride deposition instead of SiH₄/NH₃/N₂ in plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD). HD-ICP-CVD nitride films have a lower wet BOE etch rate and lower hydrogen concentration than those of nitride films deposited by PECVD. Nitride films with high density and low hydrogen concentration provide a potential improvement of hermeticity and reliability, which are crucial for MMIC insertion in the commercial arena. Furthermore, HD-ICP-CVD passivated devices exhibit better performance combinations of reverse breakdown voltage, transconductance, and cutoff frequency than those of PECVD passivated devices. The results achieved here warrant the application of HD-ICP-CVD for next-generation nitride passivation in compound semiconductor technologies.

Keywords

HEMT integrated circuits; III-V semiconductors; field effect MMIC; gallium arsenide; high electron mobility transistors; hydrogen; integrated circuit technology; microwave field effect transistors; passivation; plasma CVD; semiconductor technology; thermal stability; 0.15 micron; GaAs; GaAs PHEMTs; H concentration; HD-ICP-CVD passivated devices; MMIC; N₂; SiH₄; SiH₄-N₂; SiH₄/N₂ chemistry; compound semiconductor technologies; cutoff frequency; device performance; hermeticity improvement; high-density ICP-CVD; high-density inductively coupled plasma CVD; low temperature nitride deposition technique; nitride passivation; plasma chemical vapor deposition; pseudomorphic GaAs HEMTs; reliability improvement; reverse breakdown voltage; thermal stability evaluation; transconductance; wet BOE etch rate; Chemical vapor deposition; Gallium arsenide; HEMTs; Hydrogen; MODFETs; Passivation; Plasma applications; Plasma chemistry; Plasma devices; Plasma temperature;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Reliability Physics Symposium Proceedings, 2002. 40th Annual

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7352-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/RELPHY.2002.996642

Filename

996642