Improved Breakdown Voltage Characteristics of p-HEMT with an Oxidized GaAs Gate

The DC and RF characteristics of $In_{0.5}Ga_{0.5}P/In_{0.22}Ga_{0.78}As/GaAs$ p-HEMTs with a gate oxide layer of various thicknesses ($50{\;}{\AA},{\;}300{\;}{\AA}$) were investigated and compared with those of a Schottky-gate p-HEMT without the gate oxide layer. A prominent improvement in the breakdown voltage characteristics were observed for a p-HEMT having a gate oxide layer, which was implemented by using a liquid phase oxidation technique. The on-state breakdown voltage of the p-HEMT having the oxide layer of $50{\;}{\AA}$was ~2.3 times greater than that of a Schottky-gate p-HEMT. However, the p-HEMT having the gate oxide layer of $300{\;}{\AA}$ suffered from a poor gate-control capability due to the drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) resulting from the thick gate oxide inspite of the lower gate leakage current and the higher on-state breakdown voltage. The results for a primitive p-HEMT having the gate oxide layer without any optimization of the structure and the process indicate the potential of p-HEMT having the gate oxide layer for high-power applications.