GaN HEMT with AlGaN back barrier for high power MMIC switch application

Chunjiang Ren; Hongchang Shen; Zhonghui Li; Tangsheng Chen; Bin Zhang; Tao Gao

doi:10.1088/1674-4926/36/1/014008

J. Semicond. > 2015, Volume 36 > Issue 1 > 014008

SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

GaN HEMT with AlGaN back barrier for high power MMIC switch application

Chunjiang Ren, Hongchang Shen, Zhonghui Li, Tangsheng Chen, Bin Zhang and Tao Gao

+ Author Affiliations

Corresponding author: Chunjiang Ren, E-mail: rencj2010@sina.com

DOI: 10.1088/1674-4926/36/1/014008

Abstract: 0.25 μm GaN HEMT with AlGaN back barrier for high power switch application has been presented. By introducing AlGaN back barrier, the buffer layer breakdown voltage for the metal-organic chemical vapor deposited AlGaN/GaN hetero-structure on 3-inch SiC substrate showed a considerable increment, which was nearly 4× and 2× of that for the conventional GaN buffer layer and GaN buffer layer with Fe doped, respectively. GaN switch HEMTs with source to drain spacing of 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5 and 4 μm were fabricated on the AlGaN/GaN epitaxial material with AlGaN back barrier and estimated off state power handling for the GaN switch HEMTs were 25.0, 46.2, 64.0, 79.2, and 88.4 W, respectively. A demonstrator DC-12 GHz GaN SPDT MMIC switch was designed in reflective series-shunt-shunt configuration based on the GaN HEMT, with a source to drain spacing of 2.5 μm. The developed SPDT MMIC switch showed a maximum insertion loss of 1.0 dB and a minimum isolation of 30 dB at a frequency range of DC-12 GHz. A power handling capability of 44.1 dBm was achieved at 10 GHz for the MMIC switch with continuous wave power compression measurement.

Key words: AlGaN/GaN, HEMT, back barrier, MMIC, high power, switch

References

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Fig. 1. A schematic cross section of the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure with AlGaN back barrier.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

Fig. 2. Designed 6

$\times$ 100

$\mu$ m gate width GaN HEMT for characterization.

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Fig. 3. (a) Three and (b) two terminal breakdown voltage for the GaN switch HEMTs.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

Fig. 4. Frequency dependence of insertion loss and isolation for the 6

$\times$ 100

$\mu$ m gate width GaN switch HEMT.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

Fig. 5. Insertion loss versus input power for the 6

$\times$ 100

$\mu$ m gate width GaN switch HEMT at 10 GHz.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

Fig. 6. Electric circuit schematic for the designed SPDT MMIC switch.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

Fig. 7. Photograph of the GaN SPDT switch.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

Fig. 8. Measured small signal insertion loss and isolation results for the GaN SPDT switch.

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Fig. 9. CW power data for the GaN SPDT switch at various control voltage.

DownLoad: Full-Size Img PowerPoint

DownLoad: CSV

Table 1. Effect of buffer layer type on the buffer breakdown voltage.

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Characteristics summary for the GaN switch HEMT with 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, and 4 $\mu$ m drain source spacing.

DownLoad: CSV

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Chunjiang Ren, Hongchang Shen, Zhonghui Li, Tangsheng Chen, Bin Zhang, Tao Gao. GaN HEMT with AlGaN back barrier for high power MMIC switch application[J]. Journal of Semiconductors, 2015, 36(1): 014008. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/36/1/014008

C J Ren, H C Shen, Z H Li, T S Chen, B Zhang, T Gao. GaN HEMT with AlGaN back barrier for high power MMIC switch application[J]. J. Semicond., 2015, 36(1): 014008. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/36/1/014008.

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Received: 18 March 2014 Revised: Online: Published: 01 January 2015

0.25 μm GaN HEMT with AlGaN back barrier for high power switch application has been presented. By introducing AlGaN back barrier, the buffer layer breakdown voltage for the metal-organic chemical vapor deposited AlGaN/GaN hetero-structure on 3-inch SiC substrate showed a considerable increment, which was nearly 4× and 2× of that for the conventional GaN buffer layer and GaN buffer layer with Fe doped, respectively. GaN switch HEMTs with source to drain spacing of 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5 and 4 μm were fabricated on the AlGaN/GaN epitaxial material with AlGaN back barrier and estimated off state power handling for the GaN switch HEMTs were 25.0, 46.2, 64.0, 79.2, and 88.4 W, respectively. A demonstrator DC-12 GHz GaN SPDT MMIC switch was designed in reflective series-shunt-shunt configuration based on the GaN HEMT, with a source to drain spacing of 2.5 μm. The developed SPDT MMIC switch showed a maximum insertion loss of 1.0 dB and a minimum isolation of 30 dB at a frequency range of DC-12 GHz. A power handling capability of 44.1 dBm was achieved at 10 GHz for the MMIC switch with continuous wave power compression measurement.

GaN HEMT with AlGaN back barrier for high power MMIC switch application

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