Breakdown voltage enhancement of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors by polyimide/chromium composite thin film passivation

A novel AlGaN/GaN high electric mobility transistor(HEMT) with polyimide(PI)/chromium(Cr) as thepassivationlayerisproposedforenhancingbreakdownvoltageanditsDCperformanceisalsoinvestigated.The Cr nanoparticles firstly introduced in PI thin films by the co-evaporation can be used to increase the permittivity of PI film. The high-permittivity PI/Cr passivation acting as field plate can suppress the fringing electric field peak at the drain-side edge of the gate electrode. This mechanism is demonstrated in accord with measured results. The experimental results show that in comparison with the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs without passivation, the breakdown voltage of HEMTs with the PI/Cr composite thin films can be significantly improved, from 122 to 248 V.