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.

In situ monitoring of the electrical property of carbon nanotube thin film in floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition

In floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FCCVD), when a carbon nanotube (CNT) network film is produced by filter collection, the film thickness is adjusted by controlling the collection time. However, even with consistent synthesis parameters, the synthesis condition in FCCVD changes constantly depending on the carbon and catalyst adhesion to the inner wall of the reaction tube. Thus, the rate of synthesis changes, making it difficult to obtain the target film thickness repeatedly and stably. We propose a method of monitoring CNT film thickness and percolation threshold by the in situ measurement of the electrical impedance during the deposition. The time evolution of the measured impedance is reproducible by an equivalent electrical circuit simulation.

Water-assisted controllable growth of atomically thin WTe2 nanoflakes by chemical vapor deposition based on precursor design and substrate engineering strategies

WTe2 nanostructures have intrigued much attention due to their unique properties, such as large non-saturating magnetoresistance, quantum spin Hall effect and topological surface state. However, the controllable growth of large-area atomically thin WTe2 nanostructures remains a significant challenge. In the present work, we demonstrate the controllable synthesis of 1T’ atomically thin WTe2 nanoflakes (NFs) by water-assisted ambient pressure chemical vapor deposition method based on precursor design and substrate engineering strategies. The introduction of water during the growth process can generate a new synthesized route by reacting with WO3 to form intermediate volatile metal oxyhydroxide. Using WO3 foil as the growth precursor can drastically enhance the uniformity of as-prepared large-area 1T’ WTe2 NFs compared to WO3 powders. Moreover, highly oriented WTe2 NFs with distinct orientations can be obtained by using a-plane and c-plane sapphire substrates, respectively. Corresponding precursor design and substrate engineering strategies are expected to be applicable to other low dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides, which are crucial for the design of novel electronic and optoelectronic devices.