High Electron Mobility Transistor

Rizwana Ahmad, A4LE 51

Under the Supervision of Dr. M. J. Siddiqui

ABSTRACT

High-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT), also known as heterostructure FET (HFET) or modulation-

doped FET (MODFET), is a field-effect transistor incorporating a junction between two materials with
different band gaps (i.e. a heterojunction) as the channel instead of a doped region (as is generally the
case forMOSFET). A commonly used material combination is GaAs with AlGaAs, though there is
wide variation, dependent on the application of the device. The HEMT is an important device for high
speed, high frequency, digital circuits and microwave circuits with low noise applications. These
applications include telecommunications, computing and instrumentation.

1. INTRODUCTION

It has been more than 25 years since the high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) was first proposed
in 1979.1) The key concept of the HEMT is the field-eect modulation of the high-mobility two-
dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the heterostructure consisting of one of the selectively doped
semiconductor pairs, such as n-AlGaAs/GaAs and n-InAlAs/InGaAs. The first demonstration of the
HEMT was made in 1980.2) Nineteen eighty-one saw the first HEMT digital integrated circuit with the
highest switching speed in any semiconductor device at that time.4) In 1985, for the first time, HEMTs
were used commercially as a cryogenic low-noise amplifier5) Mass production of HEMTs for the first
consumer application was started around 1986, when low-noise HEMT amplifiers were exclusively
used in broadcasting satellite receivers, such as cell-phone handsets6) and automotive radars.7)

1.1. HISTORY OF HEMT

The history of the development of the HEMT began with research into GaAs metaloxide
semiconductor field-eect transistors (MOSFETs) in 1977. The research was motivated by the
expectation that GaAs MOSFETs will oer a superior and high-speed performance over Si-based
counterparts. At about this time, considerable research was being carried out in major semiconductor
companies and universities in the United States, Europe, and especially Japan. Primary intention for the
GaAs MOSFET research was to demonstrate an n-channel device, vital to high-speed LSI circuits.The
original concept of the modulation-doped superlattice was proposed by Esaki and Tsu.9) The
superlattice consists of many alternate thin layers of n-type AlGaAs and undoped GaAs. Electrons
supplied by donors in the AlGaAs layers move into the GaAs potential wells, suer less from ionized
donor scattering, and achieve high mobility. More impressive, however, was that electrons accumulated
in undoped GaAs potential wells.

2. METAL-SEMICONDUCTOR FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTOR (MESFETS)

The Metal-Semiconductor-Field-Effect-Transistor (MESFET) consists of a conducting channel

positioned between a source and drain contact region as shown in the Figure 2.1. The carrier flow from
source to drain is controlled by a Schottky metal gate. The control of the channel is obtained by varying
the depletion layer width underneath the metal contact which modulates the thickness of the conducting
channel and thereby the current between source and drain.

Figure 2.1 Structure of a MESFET

The higher transit frequency of the MESFET makes it particularly of interest for microwave circuits.
While the advantage of the MESFET provides a superior microwave amplifier or circuit, the limitation
by the diode turn-on is easily tolerated. The use of GaAs rather than silicon MESFETs provides two
more significant advantages: first, the electron mobility at room temperature is more than 5 times
larger, while the peak electron velocity is about twice that of silicon. Second, it is possible to fabricate
semi-insulating (SI) GaAs substrates, which eliminates the problem of absorbing microwave power in
the substrate due to free carrier absorption.
3. THE HIGH ELECTRON MOBILITY TRANSISTOR

In order to maintain high transconductance in a MESFET, the channel conductivity must be as high as
possible. Obviously, the conductivity can be increased by increasing the doping in the channel and thus
the carrier concentration. However, increased doping also causes increased scattering by the ionized
impurities, which leads to a degradation of mobility. What is needed is a way of creating a high electron
concentration in the channel of a MESFET by some means other than doping. A clever approach to this
requirement is to be to grow a thin undoped well (e.g., GaAs) bounded by wider band gap, doped
barriers (e.g., AlGaAs). This configuration, called modulation doping, results in conductive GaAs when
electrons from the doped AlGaAs barriers fall into the well and become trapped there, as shown in
figure 1(a). Since the donors are in the AlGaAs rather than the GaAs, there is no impurity scattering of
electrons in the well. If a MESFET is constructed with the channel along the GaAs well, we can take
advantage of this reduced scattering and resulting higher mobility. This effect is especially strong at low
temperature where lattice scattering is also low. This device is called a modulation doped field-effect
transistor (MODFET) and is also called a high electron mobility transistor HEMT).

Figure 3.1(a) Simplified view of modulation doping, showing only the conduction band
(b) Use of a single AlgaAs/GaAs hetrojunction to trap electrons in undoped GaAs

In Figure 3.1(a) we have left out the band-bending expected at the AlGaAs/GaAs interfaces. We expect
the electrons to accumulate at the corners of the well due to band bending at the heterojunction. In fact,
only one heterojunction is required to trap electrons as shown in fig 3.1(b). Generally, the donors in the
AlGaAs layer are purposely separated from the interface by 100 . Using this configuration, we can
achieve a high electron concentration in the channel while retaining high mobility, since the GaAs
channel region is spatially separated from the ionized impurities which provide the free carriers.

In Figure 3.1(b), mobile electrons generated by the donors in the AlGaAs diffuse into the small band
gap GaAs layer, and they are prevented from returning to the AlGaAs by the potential barrier at the
AlGaAs/GaAs interface. The electrons in the (almost) triangular well form a two-dimensional electron
gas (2-DEG). Sheet carrier densities as high as 1012 cm-2 can be obtained at a single interface such as
that shown in figure 3.1(b). Ionized impurity scattering is greatly reduced simply by separating the
electrons from the donors. Also screening effects due to the extremely high density of two-dimensional
electron gas can reduce ionized impurity scattering further. In properly designed structures, the electron
transport approaches that of bulk GaAs with no impurities, so that mobility is limited by lattice
scattering. As a result, nobilities above 250,000 cm2/V-s at 77 K and 2,000,000 cm2/V-s at 4K can be
achieved.

A schematic diagram showing the various GaAs and AlGaAs layers composing a HEMT active layer
is shown in Figure 3.2. The HEMT, or MODFET, is also referred to as a two-dimensional electron gas
FET (2- DEG FET, or TEGFET) to emphasize the fact that conduction along the channel occurs in a
thin sheet of charge. The device has also been called a separately doped FET (SEDFET), to emphasize
the fact that the doping occurs in a separate region from the channel.

Figure 3.2: Schematic cross section of a HEMT structure

3.1. HEMT OPERATION

The operation of the HEMT is somewhat different to other types of FET and as a result it is able to give
a very much improved performance over the standard junction or MOS FETs, and in particular in
microwave radio applications.
Electrons from the n-type region move through the crystal lattice and many remain close to the hetero-
junction. These electrons for a layer that is only one layer thick forming what is known as a two
dimensional electron gas. Within this region the electrons are able to move freely because there are no
other donor electrons or other items with which electrons will collide and the mobility of the electrons
in the gas is very high.
A bias applied to the gate formed as a schottky barrier diode is used to modulate the number of
electrons in the channel formed from the 2 D electron gas and in turn this controls the conductivity of
the device. This can be compared to the more traditional types of FET where the width of the channel is
changed by the gate bias.
4. HETEROJUNCTIONHEMT VERSUS MESFET

As like HEMT, the most widely used IIIV transistor for both microwave and high-speed digital
applications was the GaAs metal semiconductor field effect transistor (MESFET). However, since
electrons must transit through the doped channel in a MESFET, it does not take full advantage of the
high mobilitys in GaAs. For comparison, the cross sections of a GaAs HEMT and a MESFET are
shown in Fig. 3 and a comparison of their material properties are shown in Table 1. The model HEMT
structure can be formed of two distinct semiconductor layers. The band gap difference results in the
formation of conduction and valence band discontinuities at the layer interface or heterojunction
creating a quantum well in the conduction band. The wider band gap semiconductor is doped with
donors while the smaller band gap material is left undoped. The conduction band electrons move from
the donor layer to the undoped layer forming a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) along the
heterojunction. The band gap discontinuities are energy barriers spatially confining the electrons.

Table 1 Material properties of conventional HEMT and GaAs MESFET structures

5. ADVANTAGES OF USING HEMT

Many of the advantages offered by HEMTs are:

High electron mobility,
Small source resistance,
High gain-bandwidth product, fT , due to high electron velocity in large electric fields,
High transconductance due to small gate-to- channel separation,
High output resistance,
Higher Schottky barrier height due to deposition of Schottky metal on AlGaAs instead of on
GaAs,

HEMT devices have been used in the design of both (linear and nonlinear) hybrid and monolithic
circuits. Circuit functions implemented include: amplifiers, mixers, frequency doublers, frequency
converters, oscillators, switches, attenuators, and phase shifters.

6. APPLICATIONS

The HEMT was originally developed for high speed applications. It was only when the first devices
were fabricated that it was discovered they exhibited a very low noise figure. This is related to the
nature of the two dimensional electron gas and the fact that there are less electron collisions.
As a result of their noise performance they are widely used in low noise small signal amplifiers, power
amplifiers, oscillators and mixers operating at frequencies up to 60 GHz and more and it is anticipated
that ultimately devices will be widely available for frequencies up to about 100 GHz. In fact HEMT
devices are used in a wide range of RF design applications including cellular telecommunications,
Direct broadcast receivers - DBS, radar, radio astronomy, and any RF design application that requires a
combination of low noise and very high frequency performance
HEMTs are manufactured by many semiconductor device manufacturers around the globe. They may
be in the form of discrete transistors, but nowadays they are more usually incorporated into integrated
circuits. These Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit chips, or MMICs are widely used for RF
design applications, and HEMT based MMICs are widely used to provide the required level of
performance in many areas.

7. CONCLUSION

The advantages of a HEMT are its ability to locate a large electron density (1012 cm-2) in a very thin
layer (<100 thick) very close to the gate while simultaneously eliminating ionized impurity
scattering. The AlGaAs layer in a HEMT is fully depleted under normal operating conditions and since
the electrons are confined to the heterojunction, device behavior closely resembles that of a MOSFET.
The advantages of the HEMT over the Si MOSFET are the higher mobility and maximum electron
velocity in GaAs compared with Si, and the smoother interfaces possible with an AlGaAs/GaAs
heterojunction compared with the Si/SiO2 interface. The higher performance of the HEMT translates
into an extremely high cutoff frequency, and devices with fast access times.

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