Submicrometer-Thick Step-Graded AlGaN Buffer on Silicon with a High-Buffer Breakdown Field

Submicrometer-thick AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) epilayers grown on silicon substrate with a state-of-the art vertical buffer breakdown field as high as 6 MV cm(-1) enabling a high transistor breakdown voltage of 250 V for short gate-to-drain distances despite such a thin structure are reported. HEMTs with a gate length of 100 nm exhibit good DC characteristics with a low drain-induced barrier, going as low as 100 mV V-1 for a V-DS of 30 V. Breakdown voltages of each epilayer from the decomposed heterostructure reveals that the outstanding breakdown strength is attributed to the insertion of Al-rich AlGaN in the buffer layers combined with an optimized AlN nucleation layer. As a result, large signal measurements at 10 GHz could be reliably achieved up to V-DS = 35 V despite the use of a 100 nm gate length. These results demonstrate the potential of submicrometer-thick buffer GaN-on-Si heterostructures for high-frequency applications.