| Aluminum Gallium Nitride / Gallium Nitride High Electron Mobility Transistors are becoming the technology of choice for applications where hundreds of volts need to be applied in a circuit at frequencies in the hundreds of gigahertz, such as microwave communications. However, because these devices are very new, their reliability in the field is not well understood, partly because of the stochastic nature of the defects which form as a result of their operation. Many analytical techniques are not well suited to the analysis of these defects because they sample regions of the device which are either too small or too large for accurate observation.;The use of chemical deprocessing in addition to surface-sensitive analysis techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy and Scanning Probe Microscopy can be utilized in the analysis of defect formation in devices formed with nickel gates. Hydrofluoric acid is used to etch the passivation nitride which covers the semiconducting layer of the transistor. A metal etch utilizing FeCN/KI is used to etch the ohmic and gate contacts of the device and a long exposure in various solvent solutions is used to remove organic contaminants, exposing the surface of the semiconducting layer for analysis.;Deprocessing was used in conjunction with a variety of metrology techniques to analyze three different defects. One of these defects is a nanoscale crack which emanates from metal inclusions formed during alloying of the ohmic contacts of the device prior to use in the field, could impact the yield of production-level manufacturing of these devices. This defect also appears to grow, in some cases, during electrostatic stressing. Another defect, a native oxide at the surface of the semiconducting layer which appears to react in the presence of an electric field, has not been observed before during post-mortem analysis of degraded devices. It could play a major part in the degredation of the gate contact during high-field, off-mode electrostatic stressing and could be the initiator of the pitting of the semiconducting layer of the gate contact, a defect which was also observed. |
