In this study, we investigate the effects of Ga N cap layer thickness on the two-dimensional electron gas（2DEG）electron density and 2DEG electron mobility of Al N/Ga N heterostructures by using the temperature-dependent Hall measurement and theoretical fitting method. The results of our analysis clearly indicate that the Ga N cap layer thickness of an Al N/Ga N heterostructure has influences on the 2DEG electron density and the electron mobility. For the Al N/Ga N heterostructures with a 3-nm Al N barrier layer, the optimized thickness of the Ga N cap layer is around 4 nm and the strained a-axis lattice constant of the Al N barrier layer is less than that of Ga N.
A simple and effective approach to improve the switching characteristics of AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistors （HFETs） by applying a voltage bias on the substrate is presented. With the increase of the substrate bias, the OFF-state drain current is much reduced and the ON-state current keeps constant. Both the ON/OFF current ratio and the subthreshold swing are demonstrated to be greatly improved. With the thinned substrate, the improvement of the switching characteristics with the substrate bias is found to be even greater. The above improvements of the switching characteristics are attributed to the interaction between the substrate bias induced electrical field and the bulk traps in the GaN buffer layer, which reduces the conductivity of the GaN buffer layer.
Using the measured capacitance–voltage and current–voltage characteristics of the rectangular AlN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors（HFETs） with the side-Ohmic contacts, it was found that the polarization Coulomb field scattering in the AlN/GaN HFETs was greatly weakened after the side-Ohmic contact processing, however, it still could not be ignored. It was also found that, with side-Ohmic contacts, the polarization Coulomb field scattering was much stronger in AlN/GaN HFETs than in Al GaN/AlN/GaN and In0：17Al0：83N/AlN/GaN HFETs, which was attributed to the extremely thinner barrier layer and the stronger polarization of the AlN/GaN heterostructure.
AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors （HFETs） with different floating gate lengths and floating gates annealed at different temperatures, are fabricated. Using the measured capacitance-voltage curves of the gate Shottky contacts for the AlGaN/GaN HFETs, we find that after floating gate experiences 600℃ rapid thermal annealing, the larger the floating gate length, the larger the two-dimensional electron gas electron density under the gate region is. Based on the measured capacitance-voltage and current-voltage curves, the strain of the AlGaN barrier layer in the gate region is calculated, which proves that the increased electron density originates from the increased strain of the AlGaN barrier layer.
Using measured capacitance-voltage curves and current-voltage characteristics for the AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors with different gate lengths and drain-to-source distances, the influence of drain bias on the electron mobility is investigated. It is found that below the knee voltage the longitudinal optical （LO） phonon scattering and interface roughness scattering are dominant for the sample with a large ratio of gate length to drain-to-source distance （here 4/5）, and the polarization Coulomb field scattering is dominant for the sample with a small ratio （here 1/5）. However, the above polarization Coulomb field scattering is weakened in the sample with a small drain-to-source distance （here 20 μm） compared with the one with a large distance （here 100 μm）. This is due to the induced strain in the AlGaN layer caused by the drain bias.
The parasitic source resistance（RS） of AlGaN/AlN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors（HFETs） is studied in the temperature range 300–500 K. By using the measured RSand both capacitance–voltage（C–V） and current–voltage（I–V） characteristics for the fabricated device at 300, 350, 400, 450, and 500 K, it is found that the polarization Coulomb field（PCF） scattering exhibits a significant impact on RSat the above-mentioned different temperatures. Furthermore, in the AlGaN/AlN/GaN HFETs, the interaction between the additional positive polarization charges underneath the gate contact and the additional negative polarization charges near the source Ohmic contact, which is related to the PCF scattering, is verified during the variable-temperature study of RS.
