Impact of stress in ICP-CVD SiN x passivation films on the leakage current in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

The impact of the stress in room temperature inductively coupled plasma chemical vapour deposited (ICP-CVD) SiNx surface passivation layers on off-state drain (IDS-off) and gate leakage currents (IGS) in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) is reported. IDS-off and IGS in 2 μm gate length devices were reduced by up to four orders of magnitude to ~10 pA/mm using a compressively stre...