Innovative nitride passivated pseudomorphicGaAs HEMTs

A novel low-temperature nitride passivation technique using high-density inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (HD-ICP-CVD) with SiH
₄
/N
₂
chemistries to passivate 0.15 μm pseudomorphic GaAs HEMTs has been developed for the first time. HD-ICP-CVD nitrides have higher density and lower hydrogen concentration than those of nitrides deposited by plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD). Furthermore, HD-ICP-CVD passivated devices exhibit better performance in reverse breakdown voltage, transconductance, and cut-off frequency than those of PECVD passivated devices. The results achieved here warrant the applications of HD-ICP-CVD for next-generation nitride passivation in compound semiconductor technologies.