Investigation of impact ionization in InAs-channel HEMT for high-speed and low-power applications

An 80-nm InP high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) with InAs channel and InGaAs subchannels has been fabricated. The high current gain cutoff frequency (f_t) of 310 GHz and the maximum oscillation frequency (f_max) of 330 GHz were obtained at V_DS = 0.7 V due to the high electron mobility in the InAs channel. Performance degradation was observed on the cutoff frequency (f_t) and the corresponding gate delay time caused by impact ionization due to a low energy bandgap in the InAs channel. DC and RF characterizations on the device have been performed to determine the proper bias conditions in avoidance of performance degradations due to the impact ionization. With the design of InGaAs/InAs/InGaAs composite channel, the impact ionization was not observed until the drain bias reached 0.7 V, and at this bias, the device demonstrated very low gate delay time of 0.63 ps. The high performance of the InAs/InGaAs HEMTs demonstrated in this letter shows great potential for high-speed and very low-power logic applications.