Impact of In Situ NH3 pre-treatment of LPCVD SiN passivation on GaN HEMT performance

The impact on the performance of GaN HEMTs of in situ ammonia (NH3) pre-treatment prior to the deposition of silicon nitride (SiN) passivation with low-pressure chemical vapor deposition is investigated. Three different NH3 pre-treatment durations (0, 3, and 10 minutes) were compared in terms of interface properties and device performance. A reduction of oxygen at the interface between SiN and epi-structure is detected by Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy-Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy measurements in the sample subjected to 10 minutes of pre-treatment. The samples subjected to NH3 pre-treatment show a reduced surface-related current dispersion of 9 % (compared to 16% for the untreated sample), which is attributed to the reduction of oxygen at the SiN/epi interface. Furthermore, NH3 pre-treatment for 10 minutes significantly improves the current dispersion uniformity from 14.5 % to 1.9 %. The reduced trapping effects result in a high output power of 3.4 W/mm at 3 GHz (compared to 2.6 W/mm for the untreated sample). These results demonstrate that the in situ NH3 pre-treatment before low-pressure chemical vapor deposition of SiN passivation is critical and can effectively improves the large-signal microwave performance of GaN HEMTs.