Recessed gate GaN MESFETs fabricated by the photoelectrochemical etching process

Abstract

A new photo-electrochemical etching method was developed and used to fabricate GaN MESFETs. The etching process uses photoresist for masking illumination and the etchant is KOH based. The etching rate with 1.0 mol% of KOH for n-GaN is as high as 1600 Å/min under the Hg illumination of 35 mW/cm/². The MESFET saturates at V_DS = 4 V and pinches off at V_GS = −3 V. The maximum drain current of the device is 230 mA/mmn at 300 K and the value is remained almost same for 500 K operation. The characteristic frequencies, f_T and f_max, are 6.35 GHz and 10.25 GHz, respectively. Insensitivity of the device performance to temperature was attributed to the defect-related high activation energy of dopants for ionization and band-bending at the subgrain boundaries in GaN thin films.