Comprehensive analysis of small-signal parameters of fully strained and partially relaxed high Al-content lattice mismatched AlmGa1-mN/GaN HEMTs

Proposes an accurate model to investigate the small-signal microwave parameters of fully strained (FS) and partially relaxed (PR) Al_mGa_1-mN/GaN high electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs). It is observed that elastic strain relaxation of the Al_mGa_1-mN layer imposes an upper limit on the maximum two-dimensional electron-gas sheet charge density and is, thus, extremely critical in determining the microwave performance of high Al-content Al_mGa_1-mN/GaN HEMTs. The model incorporates the effects of strain relaxation of the barrier layer, field-dependent mobility, parasitic source/drain resistance, and velocity saturation to evaluate drain current, transconductance, drain conductance, cutoff frequency, and transit time of FS and PR Al_mGa_1-mN/GaN HEMTs with different Al mole fractions. The proposed model predicts a high drain current of 5.94 A/mm for a PR 0.3-μm Al_0.4Ga_0.6N/GaN HEMT, which is in close proximity with previously published simulated results. A peak transconductance of 154 mS/mm is also estimated for a 1-μm gate-length device with aluminum concentration of 15% (FS), which is in close agreement with previously published measured data. A high cutoff frequency of 21.09 GHz was predicted for a 0.6-μm device with an Al mole fraction of 0.5 (PR), thus showing the potential of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs for microwave applications.