Applied Physics Express 18, 034004 (2025) LETTER

https://doi.org/10.35848/1882-0786/adbc79

AlGaN/GaN HEMT on a free-standing GaN substrate with record 85.2%

power-added efficiency at 2.45 GHz
Toshihiro Ohki* , Atsushi Yamada , Yuichi Minoura, Yusuke Kumazaki, Kenji Saito, and Masaru Sato
Fujitsu Limited, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243-0197, Japan
*
E-mail: [email protected]
Received December 27, 2024; revised February 10, 2025; accepted March 3, 2025; published online March 19, 2025

An AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) on a free-standing GaN substrate achieved impressive power-added and drain
efficiencies of 85.2% and 89.0%, respectively, at 2.45 GHz. We improved the GaN channel quality by reducing the C concentration and
eliminated the buffer leakage path by removing the residual Si at the substrate-epitaxial layer interface. These improvements, combined with the
reduction in dislocation density and the elimination of the nucleation layer by using a free-standing GaN substrate, contributed to the enhanced
efficiency. To the best of our knowledge, the achieved efficiency represents the highest reported for GaN-based discrete HEMTs in this frequency
band. © 2025 The Author(s). Published on behalf of The Japan Society of Applied Physics by IOP Publishing Ltd

N
itride semiconductor high-electron-mobility transis- Figure 1 illustrates a schematic cross-sectional view of the
tors (HEMTs), based on GaN materials were first HEMT structure in this study. We used a 4-inch GaN substrate
commercialized in the mid-2000s as high-frequency fabricated by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE).22) The
amplifiers for wireless communications and radar applications. dislocation density of the substrate was less than 5 ×
Currently, there is extensive research and development including 106 cm–2, and the resistivity was semi-insulating. Prior to the
power conversion devices and heating applications as a tech- growth of the HEMT structure via metal-organic vapor phase
nology that offers both high performance and sustainability. epitaxy (MOVPE), a wet-chemical pretreatment with 45∼50%
GaN-based HEMTs for high-frequency amplifiers are character- concentration of hydrofluoric acid (HF) for 60 s was performed
ized by robustness due to wide bandgap and relatively high to remove residual Si from the surface of the GaN substrate.21,23)
electron mobility due to two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). This treatment reduced residual Si concentration by approxi-
From the perspective of achieving both high output power and mately two orders of magnitude and the leakage current flowing
high efficiency, devices based on other materials cannot compete laterally along the substrate surface.21) As the buffer layer for the
in the frequency range of 1 to 100 GHz.1–3) In the early stage of first epitaxial layer, Fe-doped GaN with a concentration of 1 ×
GaN-based HEMTs, substrates made from the same material, 1019 cm−3 was grown with a thickness of 50 nm. The Fe
i.e., GaN, did not exist. Instead, substrates composed of various concentration was sufficiently high compared with the Si
different materials such as SiC,4,5) Si,6,7) and sapphire,8–10) concentration, which remained below 1018 cm–3 on the substrate
have been widely developed. Among these, SiC is preferred surface after the wet-chemical pretreatment. To evaluate the
owing to its relatively close lattice constant, high resistivity, and effect of this highly Fe-doped buffer layer, two samples—with
excellent thermal conductivity. Additionally, the decrease in and without the buffer—were prepared and compared using an
substrate prices resulting from the development and proliferation isolation evaluation pattern, in which the two-dimensional
of SiC power devices has led to the frequent use of SiC electron gas (2DEG) was inactivated by Ar ion implantation,
substrates for achieving high-power characteristics in high- as illustrated in the inset of Fig. 2. The results showed that the
frequency amplifiers. On the other hand, in recent years, the highly Fe-doped buffer effectively suppressed the leakage
technology for fabricating substrates using GaN material itself current up to high voltage in the pattern with a gap length of
has advanced,11,12) leading to an increase in reports on GaN- 2 μm. In the previous letter, it was reported that suppression of
based high-frequency amplifiers using free-standing GaN lateral leakage current in the buffer layer leads to the improve-
substrates.13–20) GaN-based HEMTs on free-standing GaN ment of the PAE of the transistor,21) and similar effects are
substrates (GaN-on-GaN HEMTs) can effectively suppress expected in the present study.
electron trapping at crystal defects during high-frequency and For the GaN channel, the V/III ratio during epitaxial growth
high-power operation, owing to their low dislocation density and was increased from 1600 to 8200 in order to reduce the residual
the elimination of nucleation layers through homoepitaxy. In C concentration and improve crystal quality. In the crystal
2021, our group achieved the world’s highest power-added growth by MOVPE, increasing the V/III ratio decreases the
efficiency (PAE) of 82.8% at 2.45 GHz, called the industrial, amount of organic metals remaining in the reaction and reduces
scientific, and medical (ISM) band, using discrete GaN-on-GaN the carbon incorporation into the crystal.24) Figure 3 shows the
HEMT.21) In this letter, we present improvements to GaN-on- PL measurement results for the GaN layer. By increasing the
GaN HEMT devices designed to enhance efficiency. Compared V/III ratio, the yellow luminescence around the wavelength of
to our previous report, these improvements were achieved 560 nm, in which the origin is carbon-related defects,25) was
by enhancing the crystal quality of the GaN channel and significantly reduced. The yellow luminescence to band edge
mitigating the effects of residual Si at the interface between (YL/BE) ratio decreased by more than one order of magnitude
the substrate and the epitaxial layers (sub/epi). These modifica- from 1.74 to 0.13. The Al composition of the AlGaN barrier
tions led to a significant increase in the efficiency of the layer was 31%. To reduce the contact resistance of the ohmic
GaN-based HEMTs. electrode, stripe-shaped periodic recess etching was applied as

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© 2025 The Author(s). Published on behalf of
034004-1 The Japan Society of Applied Physics by IOP Publishing Ltd
Appl. Phys. Express 18, 034004 (2025) T. Ohki et al.

stripe-shaped recess with 0.5-μm-wide recesses and 0.5-μm-

wide mesas. The gate electrode consisted of a Ni/Au-based
multilayer structure, and the passivation film was SiN, formed by
plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The gate
length was 0.5 μm, and the pattern was formed using an i-line
stepper. To reduce the magnitude of the electric field applied to
the drain-side edge of the gate electrode during high-power
operation, both the gate field plate and the source field plate were
incorporated into the design.
Figure 4 shows three-terminal DC characteristics of GaN-on-
GaN HEMT in this study. The sheet resistance of the 2DEG was
390 Ω/sq., and the maximum drain current Idmax and on-
resistance Ron were 853 mA mm−1 and 4.74 Ω·mm, respectively,
at a gate voltage Vgs of +2 V. The maximum transconductance
gmmax and threshold voltage Vth were 288 mS mm−1 and
−1.77 V, respectively, at a drain voltage Vds of 10 V. Afterward,
we carried out on-wafer load-pull measurements at 2.45 GHz
Fig. 1. Schematic cross-sectional view of GaN-based HEMT on free-
standing GaN substrate (GaN-on-GaN HEMT). within the ISM band. The load-pull system was operated in pulse
mode with an RF signal duration of 10 μs and a duty cycle of
1%. The total gate periphery Wg is 3.2 mm (10 × 320 μm), and
the device was operated at a Vds of 55 V and an Id of 10 mA
mm−1. Under these bias conditions, the fT and fmax were
11.5 GHz and 20.3 GHz, respectively. Figure 5 shows the
input–output power (Pin–Pout) characteristics with fundamental
and harmonic impedance set to the PAE-matching condition.
GaN-on-GaN HEMTs in this study simultaneously exhibited an
excellent PAE of 85.2%, drain efficiency (DE) of 89.0%, and a
high output power of 44.04 dBm, corresponding to an output
power density of 7.9 W mm−1. These results surpass those of
previous reports and are attributable to both the reduction in
electron trapping phenomena through improved channel quality
Fig. 2. I–V characteristics of isolation verification pattern with and without and the suppression of substrate-side leakage current via a
high concentration Fe buffer. The 2DEG of a GaN-based HEMT structure reduction in residual Si at the sub/epi interface during high-
was inactivated by Ar ion implantation. power operation. Although it is generally acknowledged that a
correlation exists between current collapse, observed through
pulsed I–V measurements, and efficiency, the magnitude of
current collapse did not show significant changes compared with
previous data. This study focused on the high-efficiency region
(>80%) achieved using a high-quality GaN substrate. Therefore,
it is believed that pulsed I–V measurements have limitations as
an evaluation method, particularly for GHz-order performance.
Figure 6 shows the benchmark of load-pull measurement results
for discrete GaN-based HEMTs reported in a frequency range of
2–3 GHz.4–7,27–32) To the best of our knowledge, our device sets
a new record for the highest PAE and DE among discrete GaN

Fig. 3. PL profiles of GaN channel grown via MOVPE at varying V/III ratio.
(a) (b)
26)
shown in Fig. 1. This structure provides a more stable lower
contact resistance than a planar-type recessed structure because
the electrodes contact the 2DEG directly without an intervening
barrier layer and because a thin barrier layer is not required,
preventing reduction in the 2DEG beneath the electrodes.
Furthermore, stripe-shaped recess structure also reduces the
thermal budget, which can be an origin of electron traps,
compared with a process involving a regrowth layer made of
highly-Si-doped GaN. For the ohmic electrode metal, a Ti/Al-
based structure was formed by evaporation and lift-off process,
and rapid thermal annealing at 600 °C was carried out. In this
study, the contact resistance was reduced from 0.38 to Fig. 4. Three terminal (a) Id–Vds characteristics and (b) transfer charac-
0.25 Ω·mm through the implementation of a 1.0-μm-pitch teristics of GaN-on-GaN HEMT.
© 2025 The Author(s). Published on behalf of
034004-2 The Japan Society of Applied Physics by IOP Publishing Ltd
Appl. Phys. Express 18, 034004 (2025) T. Ohki et al.

and development project for the expansion of radio spectrum resources

(JPJ000254)” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, Japan. The
authors would like to thank Masao Yamada, Yoichi Kamada, and Naoko
Kurahashi for their support in device characterization.
ORCID iDs Toshihiro Ohki https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3827-8625
Atsushi Yamada https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3317-2365

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© 2025 The Author(s). Published on behalf of

034004-3 The Japan Society of Applied Physics by IOP Publishing Ltd