C-V characteristics of high performance

Si3N4/GaOxN1−x/GaN double gate MIS-HEMT

1st Md. Ibrahim Ahmed1 , 2nd Hanif ur Rahman2 ,
3 Md. Saddam Hossain Razo,4th Mohammad Rafiqul Alam
rd

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,

Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, Chittagong, Bangladesh
u1502017@student.cuet.ac.bd1 , u1502015@student.cuet.ac.bd2

Abstract—Closed-form solution for electrostatics in a quantum
well heterostructure like Si3 N4 /GaOx N1−x /GaN DG MIS-
HEMT, working in the nanometer regime is highly non-linear
due to strong Quantum Mechanical(QM) effects. Numerical
simulation is most effective to predict the characteristics. Self-
consistent simulation with couple Schrodinger’s and Poisson’s
equations are used in this work to get quantum capacitance vs
gate voltage (C-V) characteristics. In this particular design of DG
MIS-HEMT, staircase-like behavior of CV characteristics found.
Because of the use of GaOx N1−x layer, C-V characteristics show
less steeper staircase behavior. The effects of different parameters
like channel thickness, doping concentration on the CV curve
have also been explored here.
Index Terms—DG MIS-HEMT, Gate capacitance, Staircase
structure, Self-consistent solution
I. I NTRODUCTION
Since the late 1950s, for more than half a century now,
most of the burden of the microelectronics industry has
been shouldered by the Silicon (Si) material system. Power
MOSFETs based on Si have been the workhorse for the power-
reliability as well as stability[4,6,7]. Because of the unique
material properties and working conditions, failure criterion
for GaN-based power electronic devices may be dissimilar
from the Si, which needs specialized technique and effort to
get improved device reliability. Crystalline GaOx N1−x has a
bandgap of about 4.1eV[8] and positive valence band offset
of 0.7eV compared with GaN. As a result, with crystalline
GaOx N1−x around the gate of the E-mode GaN MIS-FET, a
hole blocking ring was created. The hole energy barrier then
suppress the flow of holes to the gate side, also reduce the
hole-induced corrosion in the gate nitride [8].However only
capacitance voltage characteristics is studied here.
II. DEVICE STRUCTURE AND SIMULATION
MODEL
The working device has been shown in Fig.1.
L(gate)
Front Gate

electronics and power-delivery market [1]. Si-based Vertical Silicon Nidride t_n
FETs, Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs), Laterally Diffused S
GaON Barrier t_b
D
MOSFET (LDMOS) and Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors o
r
u
(IGBTs) have been used extensively in high power switching- r GaN Channel t_ch a
i
c
circuits that form building blocks of most power conversion n
e
GaON Barrier t_b
systems [2]. Though these devices have continuously been Silicon Nidride t_n
under evolution, these power devices have reached a perfor- Z

mance plateau due to the material constraints of Si, while
the efficiency and cost demands of the power-electronics and
power-conversion industry are ever so increasing. As a result,
the industry has been looking for alternate materials particu-
larly wide band-gap semiconductors such as Silicon Carbide
(SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) which present a way forward
towards achieving the desired performance [3]. The wide
bandgap with large breakdown electric field of GaN, combined
with large sheet carrier concentration as well as with high
electron mobility of two dimensional electron gas (2DEG)
at AlGaN/GaN hetero-interface, make GaN-based devices
challenging candidates for the upcoming generation high-
efficiency power converters[4,5]. However,the development of
GaN MIS-FETs has been obstructed by the concerns on device
X Back Gate
Y
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a III-V DG MIS-HEMT
In this model, Si3 N4 /GaOx N1−x /GaN heterostructure
DG MIS-HEMT has been studied. In this design, GaN has
been used as a channel, Si3 N4 as an insulator and crys-
talline GaOx N1−x as a barrier. The Device is symmetrical
about the channel. The width of Si3 N4 insulator, GaOx N1−x
barrier and GaN channel is assumed 2nm, 2nm, and 10 nm
respectively. It has been seen from Fig.1 carrier are confined
along the width but are free to move along rest of the two.
A narrow bandgap cubic GaN layer is sandwiched within the
two relatively broad bandgap cubic GaOx N1−x barrier layers
and the channel is limited at the heterostructure interfaces. So
this 1D confinement works as a quantum well.
The properties of materials used in this work are summarized where U(z) is the energy level of valence and conduction band
in Table.1. and m∗ (z) is the effective mass,  is Plank constant , φm (z) is
the eigen function and m is the Eigen energy. There are many
TABLE I ways to solve the differential equation. For a 1D solution, we
D EVICE MATERIAL PROPERTIES used the Finite Difference Method (FDM).
Property Material B. FDM in Schrodinger Equation
Silicon Nitride GaOx N1−x GaN
Relative permittivity r 7.5 11.7 4 The finite difference method is used to convert Equation (1)
Bandgap Eg (eV) 5.2 4.1 3.4 into a Hamiltonian matrix. This conversion is done by choos-
Electron affinity χ(eV ) 4.1 4 2.8
Effective mass(m*) 0.95 0.25 0.20 ing a equidistan mesh.The matrix representing the Hamiltonian
operator(Hop) is obtained.
2 ∂2
Here Fermi level set at -1V. The flat band structure is shown Hop = [U (z) − ] (2)
2m∗ (z) ∂z 2
in Fig.2.
Using the FDM scheme we can convert the Hamiltonian
Device Flat Band
Operator into difference equation.
4
[Hop φ]zi = −t0 φi−1 + (U (zi ) + 2t0 )φ]i − t0 φi+1 (3)
Energy Level(eV)

E
2 F Where
E 2
C
t0 = (4)
0 E
V 2m∗ (z)a2
In matrix form
-2 ⎡ ⎤
U (z1 ) + 2t0 −t0 0 ... 0
⎢ −t0 U (z1 ) + 2t0 −t0 ... 0 ⎥
⎢ ⎥
-4
⎢ . . ... . . ⎥
Hop = ⎢ ⎥
0 5 10 15 20 25
Width(nm) ⎢ . . ... . . ⎥
⎢ ⎥
⎣ . . ... . . ⎦
Fig. 2. Band diagram at Flat-band condition. Dotted line indicates the Fermi
level 0 0 0 −t0 U (z1 ) + 2t0
(5)
Typical solution is shown in Fig.4:
III. SELF-CONSISTENT SIMULATION
In Self-Consistent simulation, Schrodinger and Poisson’s 4
equations are simultaneously solved untill the solution con- 1st Wave Function
3 2n d Wave Function
verge. A basic flow diagram is shown in Fig.3
rd
3 Wave Function
2 E
C

Start With Gate Voltage

1

Solve Poisson’s Calculate Inversion

Equation Charge 0

Solve Schrodinger -1
Update Potential
Equation
Converge ? NO -2
Y 0 5 10 15 20 25
E
S

Terminate Fig. 4. Typical solution from Schrodinger solver

Fig. 3. Flow diagram for self-consistent modelling We can extract all device information using this Hamiltonian
matrix.
As it has been considered that charge is confined along the C. Poisson’s Equation
z-axis(width), we solved the model only along the z-direction.
For 1D, generalized Poisson’s equation can be written as
A. SCHRODINGER EQUATION ∂ ∂V
− [(z) ] = ρ(z) (6)
Time-independent Schrodinger equation for 1-D is given by ∂z ∂z
(1) Here (z) is dielectric constant and ρ(z) is charge density.
2 ∂2 Also here FDM is used to solve Poisson’s equation.This give
[U (z) − ]φm (z) = m φm (z) (1) an another matrix.
2m∗ (z) ∂z 2
 as α .
⎡ ⎤⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤
1 0 0 0 .. 0 0 V0 V0
⎢0 (z1/2 ) + (z3/2 ) −(z3/2 ) 0 0 0⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ 2 ⎥
⎢ .. ⎥ ⎢ V1 ⎥ ⎢ h ρ(z1 )2+ (z1/2 )V0 ⎥
⎢0 −(z3/2 ) (z3/2 ) + (z5/2 ) (z5/2 ) .. 0 ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
0⎥ ⎢ V2 ⎥ ⎢⎢ h ρ(z2 ) ⎥
⎢ ⎥
⎢. . . . .. . ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
0⎥ ⎢ . ⎥ ⎢ ⎢ . ⎥
⎢ ⎥
⎢. . . . .. . ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢
0⎥ ⎢ . ⎥ = ⎢ . ⎥
⎢ ⎥
⎢. . . . .. . ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
0⎥ ⎢ . ⎥ ⎢ ⎢ . ⎥
⎢ ⎥
⎢0 0 0 0 −(zn−3/2 ) (zn−3/2 ) 0⎥ ⎢Vn−1 ⎥ ⎢h ρ(zN −1 ) + (zn−1/2 )VN ⎥
⎥ ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ 2
⎢ ⎥
⎣ +(zn−1/2 ) ⎦⎣ ⎦ ⎣ ⎦
0 0 0 0 .. 0 1 Vn VN
(7)
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Typical solution is given in Fig5.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4 EC At the very begin, zero doping concentration is considered
E
V
Poission's Solution for simulation of the device.
Potential Energy(eV)

0 4 EC
EV

2 1st Wave Function

-2
2n d Wave Function

Band Profile
-4 0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Width(nm)
-2

Fig. 5. Solution from Poisson’s equation -4

-6
0 5 10 15 20 25
D. Self-consistent Algorithm Width(nm)

The algorithm used in this simulation is briefly shown

Fig. 6. Wave function and band diagram at Vg=2V
below:
1) First, start with a gate voltage Vg and initial potential Fig.6 show the band bending and associated wave func-
Uold (z) is assumed tion.This show the probability of finding the electron at lower
2) Hamiltonian Matrix and Poisson’s matrix is created energy level of conduction band. Zero doping concentration
using FDM is treated to simplify the simulation. However the effect of
3) wave function ψ and eigenvalue(D) calculated from variation of doping concentration has shown later.
Hamiltonian Matrix
4) Carrier concentration calculated using ψ and D with 3
×10 19
Carrier Concentration(#/m 3 )

∗
2m (z)kT Ef − D 2.5
Electron Concentration

log(1 + exp(−
n(z) = ))
Hole Concentration

π 2 kT 2

5) Using n(z) in the Poisson’s equation we get the solution 1.5

Ucalc (z) 1

6) The new potential is 0.5

U = Uold + α(Ucalc (z) − Uold ) 0

0 5 10 15 20 25
Width(nm)

where α is an update coefficient

7) This U feeds back to the Schrodinger equation and new
n(z) found and, therefore, updated U(z) is found until
the potential converges.
The update coefficient in
U = Uold + α(Ucalc (z) − Uold )
plays an important role in convergence. If a small value of
α is taken then, more time will be required to converge. But
if larger value of α is taken and then the oscillation instead of
the convergence can happen. In my simulation, we used 0.04
Fig. 7. Charge profile at gate voltage=2V,hole Concentration is zero here.
Fig. 7 shows the corresponding carrier concentration at
Vg=2V. This shows that most of the charges are accumulated
at middle part (this is for electron at +2V) i.e. lower energy
level.
Simulation is done for Vg ranging from -4V to +4.5 V to get
the total carrier charge profile varying with Vg.
Fig. 8 shows the variation of charge accumulation with
different gate voltage.It is seen from the figure that charge
accumulation increase with increasing gate voltage.
 25
6 ×10
Electron Conc(Vg=3V)
Carrier Concentration Hole Conc
5

4
Electron Conc(Vg=3.5V)
Electron Conc(Vg=4V)
3

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Width(nm)

Fig. 8. Charge profile at different gate voltage

QV Fig. 11. CV profile of Si3 N4 /GaOx N1−x /GaN double gate MIS-HEMT
as a function of channel thickness.
Carrier Concentration(cm-2)

Electron Concentration
Hole concentration
1010
×10 -6 Effect of doping on Capacitance
5

4 Nd=0
Nd=1e24
0
Nd=5e24

Capacitance-
10
3 Nd=1e25

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 2
Gate voltage
1
Fig. 9. Charge concentration Vs gate voltage
0
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Gate Voltage
Fig.9 shows the total charge increases with the increase of gate
Fig. 12. Effect of doping on CV curves of Si3 N4 /GaOx N1−x /GaN
voltage.Total electron charge increase rapidly at lower positive double gate MIS-HEMT
voltage then increases at lower rate.Similarly total hole charge
increase rapidly at lower voltage but this rate is lower for
higher negative gate voltage. staircase like C-V feature is observed for the designed
Si3 N4 /GaOx N1−x /GaN model. The sharp rise on the gate
5
×10-6 capacitance shows the inability of the top barrier to keep the
carrier concentration away from the semiconductor surface and
Gate Capacitance(Fm-2)

Quantum Capacitance
4
within the channel region for higher gate voltage. This model
3 can be used for the normally-off operation of MIS-HEMT as
2 the valance band offset of GaOx N1−x is around 0.7eV higher
1 then GaN.
0
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
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