Effects of In-Situ Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition Treatment on the Performance of HfO2/In0.53Ga0.47As Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors

In-situ plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) technique was employed for device passivation to realize a high-performance inversion-mode HfO
₂
/In
_0.53
Ga
_0.47
As metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). Excellent quality of gate dielectric is enabled by utilizing the PEALD-aluminum nitride as a pre-gate interfacial layer, followed by a post-gate remote-plasma gas treatment. In-situ PEALD treatment led to enhanced dc characteristics, such as drain current, peak transconductance, subthreshold swing, OFF leakage current, and effective electron mobility. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis indicates a reduction of In- and Ga-related signals. Furthermore, small drain current hysteresis and low-interface state density (D
_it
) value confirm a high interfacial quality for the high-k/III-V structure. Overall, the PEALD passivation for HfO
₂
/In
_0.53
Ga
_0.47
As interface shows a remarkable improvement on the MOSFET performance.