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Reducing Thermal Resistance of AlGaN/GaN Electronic Devices Using Novel Nucleation Layers
G.J. Riedel1, J.W. Pomeroy1, K.P. Hilton2, J.O. Maclean2, D.J. Wallis2, M.J. Uren2, T. Martin2, U. Forsberg3, A. Lundskog3, A. Kakanakova-Georgieva3, G. Pozina3, E. Janzen3, R. Lossy4, R. Pazirandeh4, F. Brunner4, J. Würfl4, M. Kuball1
1 H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, BS8 1TL Bristol, U.K.
2 QinetiQ Ltd., WR14 3PS Malvern, U.K.
3 Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University, 582 46 Linköping, Sweden
4 Ferdinand-Braun-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Strasse 4, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Published in:
IEEE Electron Device Lett., vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 103-106 (2009).
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Abstract:
Currently, up to 50% of the channel temperature in AlGaN/GaN electronic devices is due to the
thermal-boundary resistance (TBR) associated with the nucleation layer (NL) needed between GaN and
SiC substrates for high-quality heteroepitaxy. Using 3-D time-resolved Raman thermography, it is
shown that modifying the NL used for GaN on SiC epitaxy from the metal-organic chemical vapor
deposition (MOCVD)-grown standard AlN-NL to a hot-wall MOCVD-grown AlN-NL reduces NL TBR by 25%,
resulting in ~10% reduction of the operating temperature of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. Considering the
exponential relationship between device lifetime and temperature, lower TBR NLs open new
opportunities for improving the reliability of AlGaN/GaN devices.
Index Terms:
CVD, epitaxial layers, FETs, gallium compounds, MODFETs, resistance heating.
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