Study on GaN buffer leakage current in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor structures grown by ammonia-molecular beam epitaxy on 100-mm Si(111)

The effect of carbon doping on the structural and electrical properties of GaN buffer layer of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structures has been studied. In the undoped HEMT structures, oxygen was identified as the dominant impurity using secondary ion mass spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. In addition, a notable parallel conduction channel was identified in the GaN buffer at the interface. The AlGaN/GaN HEMT structures with carbon doped GaN buffer using a CBr4 beam equivalent pressure of 1.86 × 10−7 mTorr showed a reduction in the buffer leakage current by two orders of magnitude. Carbon doped GaN buffers also exhibited a slight increase in the crystalline tilt with some pits on the growth surface. PL and Raman measurements indicated only a partial compensation of donor states with carbon acceptors. However, AlGaN/GaN HEMT structures with carbon doped GaN buffer with 200 nm thick undoped GaN near the channel exhibited good 2DEG characteristics.