High breakdown voltage GaN-on-insulator based heterojunction field effect transistor with a partial back barrier layer

A high breakdown voltage GaN-on-Insulator based heterojunction field effect transistor with a partial back barrier (PB-GOI HFET) is proposed in this paper. The partial back barrier (PB) formed by AlGaN is located in the GaN channel layer, which can make the breakdown voltage improved significantly by modulating the distribution of electric field along the channel. PB-GOI HFET can not only maintain the original advantages of GOI structure, but also improve the breakdown voltage without degradation of frequency performance. Compared with a conventional GOI HFET, the proposed PB-GOI HFET with gate-drain distance of 5 μm possesses the breakdown voltage of 1200 V and the FOM of 3.12 GW/cm2, which increased by more than 353% and 976%. The novel PB-GOI HFET shows great prospects in power electronics applications.