Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
The passivation of GaAs MESFET's with PECVD silicon nitride films of both compressive and tensile stresses is reported. The shift of MESFET parameters due to passivation was found to be dependent upon gate orientation. For example, it is found that the shifts of threshold voltage are of opposite sign for MESFET's oriented along [011] and [011] directions. Our experiments show that nitride of tensile stress is preferable for MESFET's with [011] oriented gates. The shifts in VTH IDSS and GM of the devices before and after nitride passivation are lesd thaw s% if the nitride of appropriate stress states are used for passivation.
Breakdown voltage of the MESFET's after nitride deposition was also studied. It is found that the process with higher hydrogen incorporation tends to reduce the surface oxide and increase the breakdown voltage after nitride deposition.