Experimental investigation on the instability for NiO/β-Ga2O3 heterojunction-gate FETs under negative bias stress

Zhuolin Jiang; Xiangnan Li; Xuanze Zhou; Yuxi Wei; Jie Wei; Guangwei Xu; Shibing Long; Xiaorong Luo

doi:10.1088/1674-4926/44/7/072803

J. Semicond. > 2023, Volume 44 > Issue 7 > 072803

ARTICLES

Experimental investigation on the instability for NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction-gate FETs under negative bias stress

Zhuolin Jiang¹, Xiangnan Li¹, Xuanze Zhou², Yuxi Wei¹, Jie Wei¹, Guangwei Xu^2,, Shibing Long² and Xiaorong Luo^1,

+ Author Affiliations

Corresponding author: Guangwei Xu, xugw@ustc.edu.cn; Xiaorong Luo, xrluo@uestc.edu.cn

DOI: 10.1088/1674-4926/44/7/072803

Abstract: A NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction-gate field effect transistor (HJ-FET) is fabricated and its instability mechanisms are experimentally investigated under different gate stress voltage (V_G,s) and stress times (t_s). Two different degradation mechanisms of the devices under negative bias stress (NBS) are identified. At low V_G,s for a short t_s, NiO bulk traps trapping/de-trapping electrons are responsible for decrease/recovery of the leakage current, respectively. At higher V_G,s or long t_s, the device transfer characteristic curves and threshold voltage (V_TH) are almost permanently negatively shifted. This is because the interface dipoles are almost permanently ionized and neutralize the ionized charges in the space charge region (SCR) across the heterojunction interface, resulting in a narrowing SCR. This provides an important theoretical guide to study the reliability of NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction devices in power electronic applications.

Key words: NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction, FET, NBS, instability, bulk traps, interface dipoles

References

[1]	Higashiwaki M, Sasaki K, Kuramata A, et al. Gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors on single-crystal β-Ga₂O₃ (010) substrates. Appl Phys Lett, 2012, 100, 013504 doi: doi.org/10.1063/1.3674287
[2]	Li W S, Nomoto K, Hu Z Y, et al. Field-plated Ga₂O₃ trench Schottky barrier diodes with a BV²/R_{on, sp} of up to 0.95 GW/cm². IEEE Electron Device Lett, 2020, 41, 107 doi: 10.1109/LED.2019.2953559
[3]	Lv Y J, Liu H Y, Zhou X Y, et al. Lateral β-Ga₂O₃ MOSFETs with high power figure of merit of 277 MW/cm². IEEE Electron Device Lett, 2020, 41, 537 doi: 10.1109/LED.2020.2974515
[4]	Wang C L, Zhou H, Zhang J C, et al. Hysteresis-free and μs-switching of D/E-modes Ga₂O₃ hetero-junction FETs with the BV²/R_on,sp of 0.74/0.28 GW/cm². Appl Phys Lett, 2022, 120, 112101 doi: doi.org/10.1063/5.0084804
[5]	Gong H H, Zhou F, Xu W Z, et al. 1.37 kV/12 A NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction diode with nanosecond reverse recovery and rugged surge-current capability. IEEE Trans Power Electron, 2021, 36, 12213 doi: 10.1109/TPEL.2021.3082640
[6]	Gong H H, Wang Z P, Yu X X, et al. Field-plated NiO/Ga₂O₃ p-n heterojunction power diodes with high-temperature thermal stability and near unity ideality factors. IEEE J Electron Devices Soc, 2021, 9, 1166 doi: 10.1109/JEDS.2021.3130305
[7]	Zhang J C, Dong P F, Dang K, et al. Ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor Ga₂O₃ power diodes. Nat Commun, 2022, 13, 3900 doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31664-y
[8]	Wang Z P, Gong H H, Meng C X, et al. Majority and minority carrier traps in NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ p-n heterojunction diode. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 981 doi: 10.1109/TED.2022.3143491
[9]	Wang C L, Gong H H, Lei W N, et al. Demonstration of the p-NiO_x/n-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction gate FETs and diodes with BV²/R_{on, sp} figures of merit of 0.39 GW/cm² and 1.38 GW/cm². IEEE Electron Device Lett, 2021, 42, 485 doi: 10.1109/LED.2021.3062851
[10]	Zhou X Z, Liu Q, Hao W B, et al. Normally-off β-Ga₂O₃ power heterojunction field-effect-transistor realized by p-NiO and recessed-gate. IEEE 34th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD), 2022, 101 doi: 10.1109/ISPSD49238.2022.9813678
[11]	Jiang Z L, Wei J, Lv Y J, et al. Nonuniform mechanism for positive and negative bias stress instability in β-Ga₂O₃ MOSFET. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 5509 doi: 10.1109/TED.2022.3201825
[12]	Ye B, Gu Y, Xu H, et al. NBTI mitigation by optimized HKMG thermal processing in a FinFET technology. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 905 doi: 10.1109/TED.2021.3139566
[13]	Jiang Z L, Wei Y X, Lv Y J, et al. Experimental investigation on threshold voltage instability for β-Ga₂O₃ MOSFET under electrical and thermal stress. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 5048 doi: 10.1109/TED.2022.3188584
[14]	Guo A, del Alamo J A. Unified mechanism for positive-and negative-bias temperature instability in GaN MOSFETs. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2017, 64, 2142 doi: 10.1109/TED.2017.2686840
[15]	Zagni N, Cioni M, Chini A, et al. Mechanisms underlying the bidirectional VT shift after negative-bias temperature instability stress in carbon-doped fully recessed AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2021, 68, 2564 doi: 10.1109/TED.2021.3063664
[16]	Gong H H, Chen X H, Xu Y, et al. Band alignment and interface recombination in NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ type-II p-n heterojunctions. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2020, 67, 3341 doi: 10.1109/TED.2020.3001249
[17]	Donnelly J P, Milnes A G. The capacitance of p-n heterojunctions including the effects of interface states. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 1967, 14, 63 doi: 10.1109/T-ED.1967.15900
[18]	Grundmann M, Karsthof R, von Wenckstern H. Interface recombination current in type II heterostructure bipolar diodes. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2014, 6, 14785 doi: 10.1021/am504454g

Fig. 1. (Color online) (a) Cross-sectional view of the proposed NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ HJ-FET and the main fabrication process flows. Schematic representation of the testing method for the analysis instability under NBS at (b) single pulse, and (c) multiple pulses with a prolonged t_s.

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Fig. 2. (Color online) Measured DC characteristics: (a) log-scale transfer characteristics and (b) output characteristics.

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Fig. 3. (Color online) Measured (a) V_GS-I_DS and (b) V_GS-I_GS curves after NBS as a function of t_r. Extracted (c) ∆V_TH and (d) I_{GS, off} degradation ratio.

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Fig. 4. (Color online) Measured (a) V_GS-I_DS and (b) V_GS-I_GS curves after NBS as a function of t_r. Extracted (c) ∆V_TH and (d) I_{GS, off} degradation ratio.

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Fig. 5. (Color online) (a) Measured V_GS-I_DS curves during NBS at V_G,s = -20 V. (b) Extracted ∆V_TH.

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Fig. 6. (Color online) Schematic cross-sections of NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ HJ-FET (a) at initial, (b) under NBS, and (c) after NBS, respectively.

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[1]	Higashiwaki M, Sasaki K, Kuramata A, et al. Gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors on single-crystal β-Ga₂O₃ (010) substrates. Appl Phys Lett, 2012, 100, 013504 doi: doi.org/10.1063/1.3674287
[2]	Li W S, Nomoto K, Hu Z Y, et al. Field-plated Ga₂O₃ trench Schottky barrier diodes with a BV²/R_{on, sp} of up to 0.95 GW/cm². IEEE Electron Device Lett, 2020, 41, 107 doi: 10.1109/LED.2019.2953559
[3]	Lv Y J, Liu H Y, Zhou X Y, et al. Lateral β-Ga₂O₃ MOSFETs with high power figure of merit of 277 MW/cm². IEEE Electron Device Lett, 2020, 41, 537 doi: 10.1109/LED.2020.2974515
[4]	Wang C L, Zhou H, Zhang J C, et al. Hysteresis-free and μs-switching of D/E-modes Ga₂O₃ hetero-junction FETs with the BV²/R_on,sp of 0.74/0.28 GW/cm². Appl Phys Lett, 2022, 120, 112101 doi: doi.org/10.1063/5.0084804
[5]	Gong H H, Zhou F, Xu W Z, et al. 1.37 kV/12 A NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction diode with nanosecond reverse recovery and rugged surge-current capability. IEEE Trans Power Electron, 2021, 36, 12213 doi: 10.1109/TPEL.2021.3082640
[6]	Gong H H, Wang Z P, Yu X X, et al. Field-plated NiO/Ga₂O₃ p-n heterojunction power diodes with high-temperature thermal stability and near unity ideality factors. IEEE J Electron Devices Soc, 2021, 9, 1166 doi: 10.1109/JEDS.2021.3130305
[7]	Zhang J C, Dong P F, Dang K, et al. Ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor Ga₂O₃ power diodes. Nat Commun, 2022, 13, 3900 doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31664-y
[8]	Wang Z P, Gong H H, Meng C X, et al. Majority and minority carrier traps in NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ p-n heterojunction diode. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 981 doi: 10.1109/TED.2022.3143491
[9]	Wang C L, Gong H H, Lei W N, et al. Demonstration of the p-NiO_x/n-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction gate FETs and diodes with BV²/R_{on, sp} figures of merit of 0.39 GW/cm² and 1.38 GW/cm². IEEE Electron Device Lett, 2021, 42, 485 doi: 10.1109/LED.2021.3062851
[10]	Zhou X Z, Liu Q, Hao W B, et al. Normally-off β-Ga₂O₃ power heterojunction field-effect-transistor realized by p-NiO and recessed-gate. IEEE 34th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD), 2022, 101 doi: 10.1109/ISPSD49238.2022.9813678
[11]	Jiang Z L, Wei J, Lv Y J, et al. Nonuniform mechanism for positive and negative bias stress instability in β-Ga₂O₃ MOSFET. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 5509 doi: 10.1109/TED.2022.3201825
[12]	Ye B, Gu Y, Xu H, et al. NBTI mitigation by optimized HKMG thermal processing in a FinFET technology. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 905 doi: 10.1109/TED.2021.3139566
[13]	Jiang Z L, Wei Y X, Lv Y J, et al. Experimental investigation on threshold voltage instability for β-Ga₂O₃ MOSFET under electrical and thermal stress. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 5048 doi: 10.1109/TED.2022.3188584
[14]	Guo A, del Alamo J A. Unified mechanism for positive-and negative-bias temperature instability in GaN MOSFETs. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2017, 64, 2142 doi: 10.1109/TED.2017.2686840
[15]	Zagni N, Cioni M, Chini A, et al. Mechanisms underlying the bidirectional VT shift after negative-bias temperature instability stress in carbon-doped fully recessed AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2021, 68, 2564 doi: 10.1109/TED.2021.3063664
[16]	Gong H H, Chen X H, Xu Y, et al. Band alignment and interface recombination in NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ type-II p-n heterojunctions. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2020, 67, 3341 doi: 10.1109/TED.2020.3001249
[17]	Donnelly J P, Milnes A G. The capacitance of p-n heterojunctions including the effects of interface states. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 1967, 14, 63 doi: 10.1109/T-ED.1967.15900
[18]	Grundmann M, Karsthof R, von Wenckstern H. Interface recombination current in type II heterostructure bipolar diodes. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2014, 6, 14785 doi: 10.1021/am504454g

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Received: 30 January 2023 Revised: 17 March 2023 Online: Accepted Manuscript: 10 May 2023Uncorrected proof: 05 June 2023Corrected proof: 26 June 2023Published: 10 July 2023

Article Navigation > Journal of Semiconductors > 2023 > 44(7): 072803

Zhuolin Jiang, Xiangnan Li, Xuanze Zhou, Yuxi Wei, Jie Wei, Guangwei Xu, Shibing Long, Xiaorong Luo. Experimental investigation on the instability for NiO/β-Ga2O3 heterojunction-gate FETs under negative bias stress[J]. Journal of Semiconductors, 2023, 44(7): 072803. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/44/7/072803 ****Zhuolin Jiang, Xiangnan Li, Xuanze Zhou, Yuxi Wei, Jie Wei, Guangwei Xu, Shibing Long, Xiaorong Luo. 2023: Experimental investigation on the instability for NiO/β-Ga2O3 heterojunction-gate FETs under negative bias stress. Journal of Semiconductors, 44(7): 072803. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/44/7/072803

Citation:

Zhuolin Jiang, Xiangnan Li, Xuanze Zhou, Yuxi Wei, Jie Wei, Guangwei Xu, Shibing Long, Xiaorong Luo. Experimental investigation on the instability for NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction-gate FETs under negative bias stress[J]. Journal of Semiconductors, 2023, 44(7): 072803. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/44/7/072803 ****

Zhuolin Jiang, Xiangnan Li, Xuanze Zhou, Yuxi Wei, Jie Wei, Guangwei Xu, Shibing Long, Xiaorong Luo. 2023: Experimental investigation on the instability for NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction-gate FETs under negative bias stress. Journal of Semiconductors, 44(7): 072803. doi: 10.1088/1674-4926/44/7/072803

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Experimental investigation on the instability for NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction-gate FETs under negative bias stress

DOI: 10.1088/1674-4926/44/7/072803

1.
State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
2.
School of Microelectronics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China

More Information

Zhuolin Jiang：received the M.S. degree from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, in 2017. He was a senior researcher with the BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd in 2020. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in microelectronics with the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
Guangwei Xu：received his Ph.D. degree at IMECAS in 2017. Then, he joined the University of California, Los Angeles as a postdoc. He joined the University of Science and Technology of China as an associate research fellow in Shibing Long Group in 2019. His research focuses on wide bandgap semiconductor power device fabrication, device defect state measurement and device modeling
Xiaorong Luo：received the Ph.D. degree in microelectronics from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, in 2007. She is currently the Vice Director of the Department of Microelectronics Science and Engineering with UESTC
Corresponding author: xugw@ustc.edu.cn; xrluo@uestc.edu.cn
Received Date: 2023-01-30
Revised Date: 2023-03-17

Available Online: 2023-05-10

Abstract

Abstract

A NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction-gate field effect transistor (HJ-FET) is fabricated and its instability mechanisms are experimentally investigated under different gate stress voltage (V_G,s) and stress times (t_s). Two different degradation mechanisms of the devices under negative bias stress (NBS) are identified. At low V_G,s for a short t_s, NiO bulk traps trapping/de-trapping electrons are responsible for decrease/recovery of the leakage current, respectively. At higher V_G,s or long t_s, the device transfer characteristic curves and threshold voltage (V_TH) are almost permanently negatively shifted. This is because the interface dipoles are almost permanently ionized and neutralize the ionized charges in the space charge region (SCR) across the heterojunction interface, resulting in a narrowing SCR. This provides an important theoretical guide to study the reliability of NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction devices in power electronic applications.
- NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction,
- FET,
- NBS,
- instability,
- bulk traps,
- interface dipoles

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References(18)

References

[1]	Higashiwaki M, Sasaki K, Kuramata A, et al. Gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors on single-crystal β-Ga₂O₃ (010) substrates. Appl Phys Lett, 2012, 100, 013504 doi: doi.org/10.1063/1.3674287
[2]	Li W S, Nomoto K, Hu Z Y, et al. Field-plated Ga₂O₃ trench Schottky barrier diodes with a BV²/R_{on, sp} of up to 0.95 GW/cm². IEEE Electron Device Lett, 2020, 41, 107 doi: 10.1109/LED.2019.2953559
[3]	Lv Y J, Liu H Y, Zhou X Y, et al. Lateral β-Ga₂O₃ MOSFETs with high power figure of merit of 277 MW/cm². IEEE Electron Device Lett, 2020, 41, 537 doi: 10.1109/LED.2020.2974515
[4]	Wang C L, Zhou H, Zhang J C, et al. Hysteresis-free and μs-switching of D/E-modes Ga₂O₃ hetero-junction FETs with the BV²/R_on,sp of 0.74/0.28 GW/cm². Appl Phys Lett, 2022, 120, 112101 doi: doi.org/10.1063/5.0084804
[5]	Gong H H, Zhou F, Xu W Z, et al. 1.37 kV/12 A NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction diode with nanosecond reverse recovery and rugged surge-current capability. IEEE Trans Power Electron, 2021, 36, 12213 doi: 10.1109/TPEL.2021.3082640
[6]	Gong H H, Wang Z P, Yu X X, et al. Field-plated NiO/Ga₂O₃ p-n heterojunction power diodes with high-temperature thermal stability and near unity ideality factors. IEEE J Electron Devices Soc, 2021, 9, 1166 doi: 10.1109/JEDS.2021.3130305
[7]	Zhang J C, Dong P F, Dang K, et al. Ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor Ga₂O₃ power diodes. Nat Commun, 2022, 13, 3900 doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31664-y
[8]	Wang Z P, Gong H H, Meng C X, et al. Majority and minority carrier traps in NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ p-n heterojunction diode. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 981 doi: 10.1109/TED.2022.3143491
[9]	Wang C L, Gong H H, Lei W N, et al. Demonstration of the p-NiO_x/n-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction gate FETs and diodes with BV²/R_{on, sp} figures of merit of 0.39 GW/cm² and 1.38 GW/cm². IEEE Electron Device Lett, 2021, 42, 485 doi: 10.1109/LED.2021.3062851
[10]	Zhou X Z, Liu Q, Hao W B, et al. Normally-off β-Ga₂O₃ power heterojunction field-effect-transistor realized by p-NiO and recessed-gate. IEEE 34th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD), 2022, 101 doi: 10.1109/ISPSD49238.2022.9813678
[11]	Jiang Z L, Wei J, Lv Y J, et al. Nonuniform mechanism for positive and negative bias stress instability in β-Ga₂O₃ MOSFET. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 5509 doi: 10.1109/TED.2022.3201825
[12]	Ye B, Gu Y, Xu H, et al. NBTI mitigation by optimized HKMG thermal processing in a FinFET technology. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 905 doi: 10.1109/TED.2021.3139566
[13]	Jiang Z L, Wei Y X, Lv Y J, et al. Experimental investigation on threshold voltage instability for β-Ga₂O₃ MOSFET under electrical and thermal stress. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2022, 69, 5048 doi: 10.1109/TED.2022.3188584
[14]	Guo A, del Alamo J A. Unified mechanism for positive-and negative-bias temperature instability in GaN MOSFETs. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2017, 64, 2142 doi: 10.1109/TED.2017.2686840
[15]	Zagni N, Cioni M, Chini A, et al. Mechanisms underlying the bidirectional VT shift after negative-bias temperature instability stress in carbon-doped fully recessed AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2021, 68, 2564 doi: 10.1109/TED.2021.3063664
[16]	Gong H H, Chen X H, Xu Y, et al. Band alignment and interface recombination in NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ type-II p-n heterojunctions. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 2020, 67, 3341 doi: 10.1109/TED.2020.3001249
[17]	Donnelly J P, Milnes A G. The capacitance of p-n heterojunctions including the effects of interface states. IEEE Trans Electron Devices, 1967, 14, 63 doi: 10.1109/T-ED.1967.15900
[18]	Grundmann M, Karsthof R, von Wenckstern H. Interface recombination current in type II heterostructure bipolar diodes. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2014, 6, 14785 doi: 10.1021/am504454g

Experimental investigation on the instability for NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction-gate FETs under negative bias stress

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Experimental investigation on the instability for NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction-gate FETs under negative bias stress

Experimental investigation on the instability for NiO/β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunction-gate FETs under negative bias stress