Facile integration of an Al-rich Al_(1-x)In_(x)N photodetector on free-standing GaN by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

Al_(1-x)In_(x)N, a Ⅲ-nitride semiconductor material, is currently of great research interest due to its remarkable physical properties and chemical stability. When the Al and In compositions are tuned, its band-gap energy varies from 0.7 eV to 6.2 eV, which shows great potential for application in photodetectors. Here, we report the fabrication and performance evaluation of integrated Al_(1-x)In_(x)N on a free-standing GaN substrate through direct radio-frequency magnetron sputtering.The optical properties of Al_(1-x)In_(x)N will be enhanced by the polarization effect of a heterostructure composed of Al_(1-x)In_(x)N and other Ⅲ-nitride materials. An Al_(1-x)In_(x)N/Ga N visible-light photodetector was prepared by semiconductor fabrication technologies such as lithography and metal deposition. The highest photoresponsivity achieved was 1.52 A·W^(-1)under 365 nm wavelength illumination and the photodetector was determined to have the composition Al0.75In0.25N/GaN.A rise time of 0.55 s was observed after transient analysis of the device. The prepared Al_(1-x)In_(x)N visible-light photodetector had a low dark current, high photoresponsivity and fast response speed. By promoting a low-cost, simple fabrication method,this study expands the application of ternary alloy Al_(1-x)In_(x)N visible-light photodetectors in optical communication.

Electrical performance and reliability analysis of vertical gallium nitride Schottky barrier diodes with dual-ion implanted edge termination

In this study,a galliumnitride(GaN)substrate and its 15μmepitaxial layer were entirely grown by adopting the hydride vapor phase epitaxy(HVPE)technique.To enhance the breakdown voltage(VBR)of vertical GaN-on-GaN Schottky barrier diodes(SBDs),a dual ion coimplantation of carbon and heliumwas employed to create the edge termination.The resulting devices exhibited a low turn-on voltage of 0.55 V,a high Ion/Ioff ratio of approximately 109,and a lowspecific onresistance of 1.93 mU cm^(2).When the ion implantation edge was terminated,the maximumVBR of the devices reached 1575 V,with an average improvement of 126%.These devices demonstrated a high figure of merit(FOM)of 1.28 GW cm^(-2) and showed excellent reliability during pulse stress testing.

Introducing voids around the interlayer of AlN by high temperature annealing

Introducing voids into AlN layer at a certain height using a simple method is meaningful but challenging.In this work,the AlN/sapphire template with AlN interlayer structure was designed and grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition.Then,the AlN template was annealed at 1700℃for an hour to introduce the voids.It was found that voids were formed in the AlN layer after high-temperature annealing and they were mainly distributed around the AlN interlayer.Meanwhile,the dislocation density of the AlN template decreased from 5.26×10^(9)cm^(-2)to 5.10×10^(8)cm^(-2).This work provides a possible method to introduce voids into AlN layer at a designated height,which will benefit the design of AlN-based devices.

Normally-off AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field-effect transistors with in-situ AlN gate insulator

AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field-effect transistors(HFETs)with p-GaN cap layer are developed for normally-off operation,in which an in-situ grown AlN layer is utilized as the gate insulator.Compared with the SiNxgate insulator,the AlN/p-GaN interface presents a more obvious energy band bending and a wider depletion region,which helps to positively shift the threshold voltage.In addition,the relatively large conduction band offset of AlN/p-GaN is beneficial to suppress the gate leakage current and enhance the gate breakdown voltage.Owing to the introduction of AlN layer,normally-off p-GaN capped AlGaN/GaN HFET with a threshold voltage of 4 V and a gate swing of 13 V is realized.Furthermore,the field-effect mobility is approximately 1500 cm^(2)·V^(-1)·s^(-1)in the 2DEG channel,implying a good device performance.

垂直氮化镓功率晶体管及其集成电路的发展状况

氮化镓作为第三代宽禁带半导体材料的代表之一,因其优越的性能,例如高电子迁移率、高电子饱和速率、耐高温及高热导率等优点吸引了越来越多的关注.也正是因为这些优点,垂直氮化镓功率晶体管在未来的电力电子领域中具有很大的发展和广泛的应用前景.本文列出了氮化镓材料和其他半导体材料主要的物理参数、氮化镓单晶制备及其外延生长的主要方法,阐述了氮化镓功率器件在目前环境下的优势.针对器件结构,列出了横向器件本身存在的问题和垂直器件的优点,解释了垂直器件为何能够成为未来功率器件的主流结构.在此基础上,详细介绍了氮化镓电流孔径垂直晶体管、垂直氮化镓沟槽金属氧化物半导体场效应晶体管、基于原位氧化物氮化镓夹层的垂直沟槽金属氧化物半导体场效应晶体管和垂直氮化镓鳍式场效应晶体管的结构、工作原理、研究进展及所存在的一些问题,并将文中所提及的垂直氮化镓功率晶体管的性能参数按器件种类和时间顺序进行归纳,为未来氮化镓功率晶体管的发展提出了大致的方向.针对集成电路系统,归纳了氮化镓功率器件在驱动芯片方面的特殊要求和关键技术.最后,针对当下的市场环境,列举了垂直氮化镓功率晶体管在中、低压范围内比较热门且发展前景较好的应用场景.

Pipeline versus Tubridge in the treatment of unruptured posterior circulation aneurysms

Background To compare the safety and efficacy of pipeline embolization device(PED)and Tubridge flow diverter(TFD)for unruptured posterior circulation aneurysms.Methods Posterior aneurysm patients treated with PED or TFD between January,2019,and December,2021,were retrospectively reviewed.Patients’demographics,aneurysm characteristics,treatment details,complications,and follow-up information were collected.The procedural-related complications and angiographic and clinical outcome were compared.Results A total of 107 patients were involved;PED was applied for 55 patients and TFD for 52 patients.A total of 9(8.4%)procedural-related complications occurred,including 4(7.3%)in PED group and 5(9.6%)in TFD group.During a mean of 10.3-month angiographic follow-up for 81 patients,complete occlusion was achieved in 35(85.4%)patients in PED group and 30(75.0%)in TFD group.The occlusion rate of PED group is slightly higher than that of TFD group.A mean of 25.0-month clinical follow-up for 107 patients showed that favorable clinical outcome was achieved in 53(96.4%)patients in PED group and 50(96.2%)patients in TFD group,respectively.No statistical difference was found in terms of procedural-related complications(p=0.737),occlusion rate(p=0.241),and favorable clinical outcome(0.954)between groups.Conclusions The current study found no difference in complication,occlusion,and clinical outcome between PED and TFD for unruptured PCAs.

Construction of van der Waals substrates for largely mismatched heteroepitaxy systems using first principles

The high density of defects induced by large strains in largely mismatched heteroepitaxy systems, such as AlN and GaN, because of the large lattice and thermal mismatch between substrates and epilayers is the bottleneck problem. Graphene-assisted van der Waals(vdW) heteroepitaxy offers a new opportunity to resolve this problem. However, it suffers from the difficulty of nucleation. Here we theoretically assess the effects of five 2D materials for vdW heteroepitaxy of AlN and GaN, including graphene, hBN, MoS2, gC3N, and gC3N4, and provide physical insights using first-principle calculations. MoS2 and gC3N exhibit significant potential to overcome the shortcomings of graphene owing to their appropriate binding strengths and Al(or Ga)diffusion barriers. Moreover, the interface behavior between the epilayers and the substrates are carefully analyzed. Our findings are helpful not only for obtaining high-quality AlN and GaN films but also for developing new criterions to discover effective 2D materials for vdW heteroepitaxy.

Micro-LED backlight module by deep reinforcement learning and micro-macro-hybrid environment control agent

This paper proposes a micro-LED backlight module with a distributed Bragg reflector(DBR) structure to achieve excellent micro-LED backlight module quality and uses deep reinforcement learning(DRL) architecture for optical design. In the DRL architecture, to solve the computing environment problems of the two extreme structures of micro-scale and macro-scale, this paper proposes an environment control agent and virtual-realistic workflow to ensure that the design environment parameters are highly correlated with experimental results. This paper successfully designed a micro-LED backlight module with a DBR structure by the abovementioned methods.The micro-LED backlight module with a DBR structure improves the uniformity performance by 32% compared with the micro-LED backlight module without DBR, and the design calculation time required by the DRL method is only 17.9% of the traditional optical simulation.

Monolithic integration of MoS2-based visible detectors and GaN-based UV detectors

With the increasing demand for high integration and multi-color photodetection for both military and civilian applications, the research of multi-wavelength detectors has become a new research hotspot. However, current research has been mainly in visible dual-or multi-wavelength detectors, while integration of both visible light and ultraviolet(UV) dual-wavelength detectors has rarely been studied. In this work, large-scale and high-quality monolayer MoS2 was grown by the chemical vapor deposition method on transparent free-standing GaN substrate. Monolithic integration of MoS2-based visible detectors and GaN-based UV detectors was demonstrated using common semiconductor fabrication technologies such as photolithography, argon plasma etching, and metal deposition. High performance of a 280 nm and 405 nm dual-wavelength photodetector was realized.The responsivity of the UV detector reached 172.12 A/W, while that of the visible detector reached 17.5 A/W.Meanwhile, both photodetectors achieved high photocurrent gain, high external quantum efficiency, high normalized detection rate, and low noise equivalent power. Our study extends the future application of dual-wavelength detectors for image sensing and optical communication.

Cell-free microRNA-21: biomarker for intracranial aneurysm rupture

Background:Deregulation of miRNA-21 expression has been reported to be associated with vascular smooth muscle behavior and cytoskeletal stability.This study is aimed to investigate the density of serum miRNA-21 in patients with different phases of intracranial aneurysms(IAs)and explore its warning function for IA rupture.Methods:A total of 16 in 200 IA patients were selected and categorized into 4 groups based on the phase of IA.Microarray study was carried out using serum miRNA and differentially expressed miRNAs were identified.Another 24 samples from a cohort of 360 patients were added and real-time polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)was performed on expanded sample size(n=40)for miRNA-21 validation.Potential gene targets of miRNA-21 were screened out from Gene Ontology(GO)database and literatures.Results:Microarray study identified 77 miRNAs with significantly different expression levels between experimental groups and the control group.RT-PCR assays validated significant downregulation of miRNA-21 in experimental groups,among which miRNA-21 expression level of daughter aneurysm group decreased the most.Bioinformatic analyses revealed that several target genes related with miRNA-21 may be involved in IA formation and rupture.Conclusions:This study suggested that miRNA-21 had a protective effect for intracranial vascular wall against remodeling and warning function for intracranial aneurysm rupture.Significant suppression of serum miRNA-21 in IA patients may provide diagnostic clues for aneurysm rupture and guide clinical intervention.

Strain enhancement for a MoS2-on-GaN photodetector with an Al2O3 stress liner grown by atomic layer deposition

Strain regulation as an effective way to enhance the photoelectric properties of two dimensional(2D)transition metal dichalcogenides has been widely employed to improve the performance of photovoltaic devices.In this work,tensile strain was introduced in multilayer MoS2 grown on GaN by depositing 3 nm of Al2O3 on the surface.The temperature dependent Raman spectrum shows that the thermal stability of MoS2 is improved by Al2O3.Theoretical simulations confirmed the existence of tensile strain on MoS2 covered with Al2O3,and the bandgap and electron effective mass of six layers of MoS2 decreased due to tensile strain,which resulted in an increase of electron mobility.Due to the tensile strain ffect,the photodetector with the Al2O3 stress liner achieved better performance under the illumination of 365 nm wavelength,including a higher responsivity of 24.6 A/W,photoconductive gain of 520,and external quantum fficiency of 8381%,which are more than twice the corresponding values of photodetectors without Al2O3.Our work provides an effective technical way for improving the performance of 2D material photodetectors.

Anomalously enhanced thermal stability of phosphorene via metal adatom doping: An experimental and first-principles study

Atomically thin black phosphorus, also known as phosphorene, is an emerging two-dimensional (2D) material, which has attracted increasing attention due to its unique electronic and optoelectronic properties. However, the reduced thermal stability of phosphorene limits its suitability for high-temperature fabrication processes, which could be detrimental for the performance of phosphorenebased devices. Here, we investigate the impact of doping by Al and Hf transition metal adatoms on the thermal stability of phosphorene. The formation of Al–P covalent bonds was found to significantly improve the thermal coefficients of the Ag1, B2g, and Ag2phonon modes to 0.00044, 0.00081, and 0.00012 cm–1·°C–1, respectively, which are two orders of magnitude lower than those observed for pristine P–P bonds (~0.01 cm–1·°C–1). First-principles calculations within the density functional theory framework reveal that the observed thermal stability enhancement in the Al-doped material reflects a significantly higher Al binding energy, due to the stronger Al–P bonds compared to the weak van der Waals interactions between adjacent P atoms in the undoped material. The present work thus paves the way towards phosphorene materials with improved structural stability, which could be promising candidates for potential nanoelectronic and optoelectronic applications. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2016, Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.