Impact of InGaN notch on sensitivity in dielectric modulated dual channel GaN MOSHEMT for label-free biosensing

The effect of InGaN notch on sensitivity and Dielectric Modulated (DM) Double Heterojunction (DH) dual channel AlGaN/GaN/InGaN/GaN MOSHEMT (Metal Oxide Semiconductor High Electron Mobility Transistor) for detecting the label-free biomolecules has been investigated in this paper. Biomolecules can be inserted into the nanocavity formed by etching the insulating layer under the gate electrode. The insulator (Al2O3) as a dielectric improves the drive current and device sensitivity because of low leakage and high scalability. In this proposed structure, the presence of InGaN notch increases the carrier confinement in the channel, thereby improving the device sensitivity. The device is simulated using Sentaurus TCAD, and the results show a significant increase in drain current (IDS), up to 3.35 A/mm. The optimization of the device parameters exhibits a high sensitivity (∼74%), making it suitable for precise label-free biosensing. [Display omitted] •Dielectric modulated AlGaN/GaN MOSHEMTs for biosensing applications.•Development of advanced MOSHEMT architectures for improving sensitivity.•AlGaN/GaN MOSHEMT with the presence of InGaN notch layer in the proposed device structure lowers the buffer leakage, enhancing 2DEG mobility, and increasing the carrier confinement in the channel and subsequently improving the sensitivity of the device.•AlGaN/GaN/InGaN/GaN MOSHEMT devices show a significant increase in drain current, transconductance of 335 mA/mm and 28 mS/mm with high sensitivity with reduced leakage.