Electrical and structural characterization of GaN based semiconductor layers

Abstract

Gallium nitride (GaN) has gained the interest of both the academics and electronic companies in recent years, and is seen as a promising material for both optoelectronics devices in the blue-ultraviolent range and high power and high frequency HEMT devices. This is due to its high breakdown voltage, saturated electron speed as wells as their electrical characteristics as open gate field effect transistors amongst other characteristics. In this paper, a study of the electrical characteristics of HEMT device and its layers were done to better understand the crystalline quality, composition, defects and carrier mobility of the material which in turn gave a clearer picture of their roles in the performance of these devices. For this study, the Hall Effect measurement system and the current-voltage measurement system were used to measure the resistivity, mobility, sheet carrier concentration and the activation energies of the sample layers and devices.