A low-gate-leakage-current GaAs MESFET with a thin epitaxial silicon layer

Author

Costa, J.C. ; Miller, T.J. ; Abid, Z. ; Williamson, F. ; Bernhardt, B.A. ; Nathan, M.I.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Minnesota Univ., Minneapolis, MN, USA

Volume

12

Issue

6

fYear

1991

fDate

6/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

324

Lastpage

326

Abstract

An n-channel depletion-mode GaAs MESFET with an Al gate and a 6-A epitaxial Si layer between the metal and the GaAs, grown in situ by molecular beam epitaxy, is described. Its DC electrical characteristics are compared with a similar control structure grown without the Si layer. The gate leakage current in the Al/Si/GaAs MESFETs was three to four orders of magnitude lower than in the control structure, due to all increased barrier height in the Al/Si/n-GaAs Schottky gate of 1.04 eV, versus 0.78 eV for the Al/n-GaAs structure. The differences in threshold voltages, I-V characteristics, and transconductances between the two devices are consistent with an enhanced effective barrier height for the Al/Si/GaAs MESFET.<>

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; Schottky effect; Schottky gate field effect transistors; gallium arsenide; leakage currents; metallisation; semiconductor technology; silicon; 1.04 eV; 6 A; Al gate; Al-Si-GaAs; DC electrical characteristics; GaAs MESFET; I-V characteristics; Schottky gate; epitaxial Si layer; increased barrier height; low-gate-leakage-current; molecular beam epitaxy; n-channel depletion-mode; semiconductors; thin; threshold voltages; transconductances; Artificial intelligence; Electric variables; Gallium arsenide; Leakage current; MESFETs; Molecular beam epitaxial growth; Schottky barriers; Silicon; Substrates; Threshold voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/55.82075

Filename

82075