Investigating the DC Performance of Ni/Au and Pt/Au Schottky Gate Contacts on GaN HEMTs for Ku band Applications

This manuscript investigates the DC performance of Ni/Au and Pt/Au Schottky Gate contacts on 150 nm AlGaN/GaN HEMTs for Ku band applications. Comparison in terms of the short channel effects (SCEs), in particularly the drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL), demonstrate the long-term stability of Ni/Au Schottky contacts for mm-wave applications. To assess the reliability of the Schottky metal scheme, the fabricated devices were subjected to a high gate reverse bias step stress of – 30 V with a step of – 5 V. A higher degree of ON–state resistance (RON) degradation for the Pt/Au Schottky contact evinces remarkable performance of Ni/Au Schottky contacts for mm-Wave applications.