A Novel GaN Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor High Electron Mobility Transistor Featuring Vertical Gate Structure

A novel structure scheme by transposing the gate channel orientation from a long horizontal one to a short vertical one is proposed and verified by technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulations to achieve GaN-based normally-off high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with reduced on-resistance and improved threshold voltage. The proposed devices exhibit high threshold voltage of 3.1 V, high peak transconductance of 213 mS, and much lower on-resistance of 0.53 mΩ·cm(2) while displaying better off-state characteristics owing to more uniform electric field distribution around the recessed gate edge in comparison to the conventional lateral HEMTs. The proposed scheme provides a new technical approach to realize high-performance normally-off HEMTs.