Proposal and Demonstration of GaN-Based Normally-Off Vertical Field-Effect Transistor with a Design of Back Current Block Layer

Abstract:

Vertical field-effect transistor (VFET) structure has the advantage in improving both the breakdown voltage (BV) and on-resistance (R_ON) of semiconductor power devices when compared with the lateral devices. GaN-based normally-off VFET device is designed and demonstrated in this work and an additional back current block layer (B-CBL) is proposed and employed to further improve the device performances. By introducing the B-CBL design, the electric field distribution along the gate aperture is more uniform which leads to an obvious increase (~30%) of BV in the proposed device while the R_ON is kept nearly constant. Therefore, the figure of merit (FOM) value of the proposed VFET is improved apparently in comparison with that of the conventional GaN-based VFET devices.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 787)
• Pages: 69-73
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.787.69
• Online since: November 2018
• Authors: Huo Lin Huang*, F. Li, Z. Sun, Y. Cao, Z. Zhang
• Keywords: Back Current Block Layer (B-CBL), Normally-Off Devices, Vertical Field-Effect Transistor (VFET)

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