First demonstration of GaAs on insulator (GOI) technology

Summary form only given. There is increased interest in the steam oxidation of AlAs, following the pioneering work done at University of Illinois. We report the first demonstration of GaAs On Insulator (GOI) technology using Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ formed by the steam oxidation of AlAs as the buffer insulator. 500 /spl Aring/ of AlAs was grown on a GaAs buffer, followed by a 100 /spl Aring/ spacer (Al/sub 0.3/GaAs), 2000 /spl Aring/ channel (n-GaAs), 30 /spl Aring/ etch stop (Al/sub 0.7/GaAs) and the 200 /spl Aring/ n/sup +/ ohmic layer for contacts (InAs-GaAs superlattice). The three-terminal DC I-V characteristics of a GOI MESFET indicate that the device has negligible output conductance. The peak g/sub m/ is over 180 mS/mm at a drain current level of 320 mA/mm. The source and drain ohmic contact resistance is 0.2 /spl Omega/-mm and the knee voltage is about 1.2 volts. The f/sub T/ and f/sub max/ of this device are 9 GHz (which is close to the expected value for a 1.5 /spl mu/m gatelength device) and 44 GHz respectively. These results indicate that Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ is a possible buffer layer insulator for III-V based FET technology and can form an enabling technology for a low substrate leakage, high output resistance GOI FETs, attractive for low power electronics.