Sub-50 nm Terahertz In } Ga } As Quantum-Well High-Electron-Mobility Transistors for 6G Applications

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electron devices 2023-01, p.1-9
• Main Authors: Park, Wan-Soo, Jo, Hyeon-Bhin, Kim, Hyo-Jin, Choi, Su-Min, Yoo, Ji-Hoon, Jeong, Hyeon-Seok, George, Sethu, Baek, Ji-Min, Lee, In-Geun, Kim, Tae-Woo, Kim, Sang-Kuk, Yun, Jacob, Kim, Ted, Tsutsumi, Takuya, Sugiyama, Hiroki, Matsuzaki, Hideaki, Lee, Jae-Hak, Kim, Dae-Hyun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavioral sciences; Cutoff frequency; HEMTs; high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT); III-V semiconductor materials; In<inline-formula xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX"> _{\text{0.8}}</tex-math> </inline-formula>Ga<inline-formula xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX"> _{\text{0.2}}</tex-math> </inline-formula>As; Indium phosphide; Logic gates; maximum oscillation frequency; short-channel effects (SCEs); Substrates; Transconductance
• ISSN: 0018-9383
• DOI: 10.1109/TED.2022.3231576

We present a systematic study on the gate length ( \textit{L}_{\textit{g}}\text{)} scaling behavior and the impact of the side-recess spacing ( \textit{L}_{\text{side}}\text{)} on dc and high-frequency characteristics of In _{\text{0.8}} Ga _{\text{0.2}} As quantum-well (QW) high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) with \textit{L}_{\textit{g}} from 10 \mu m to 20 nm, for the purpose of understanding the scaling limit of maximum oscillation frequency ( \textit{f}_{\text{max}}\text{)} and thereby demonstrating terahertz devices. The fabricated In _{\text{0.8}} Ga _{\text{0.2}} As QW HEMTs with \textit{L}_{\textit{g}} = 20 nm and \textit{L}_{\text{side}} = 150 nm exhibited values of drain-induced-barrier-lowering (DIBL) of 60 mV/V, current-gain cutoff frequency ( \textit{f}_{\textit{T}}\text{)} of 0.75 THz, and \textit{f}_{\text{max}} of 1.1 THz, while the device with \textit{L}_{\text{side}} = 50 nm showed DIBL of 110 mV/V and \textit{f}_{\textit{T}} / \textit{f}_{\text{max}} of 0.72/0.53 THz. It was central to strictly control short-channel effects (SCEs) from the perspective of DIBL to maximize the improvement of \textit{f}_{\text{max}} , as \textit{L}_{\textit{g}} was scaled down