Low-frequency noise in AlTiO/AlGaN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor heterojunction field-effect transistors

Using aluminum titanium oxide (AlTiO, an alloy of Al2O3 and TiO2) as a high-k gate insulator, we fabricated and investigated AlTiO/AlGaN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor heterojunction field-effect transistors. From current low-frequency noise (LFN) characterization, we find Lorentzian spectra near the threshold voltage, in addition to 1/f spectra for the well-above-threshold regime. The Lorentzian spectra are attributed to electron trapping/detrapping with two specific time constants, similar to 25 ms and similar to 3ms, which are independent of the gate length and the gate voltage, corresponding to two trap level depths of 0.5-0.7 eV with a 0.06 eV difference in the AlTiO insulator. In addition, gate leakage currents are analyzed and attributed to the Poole-Frenkel mechanism due to traps in the AlTiO insulator, where the extracted trap level depth is consistent with the Lorentzian LFN. Published by AIP Publishing.