Future Applications of GaN Electron Devices

0 Introduction Fifteen years have passed since the first AlGaN/GaN HFET was reported in 1993.The FETs have already commercialized as microwave power devices,but volume production has not yet realized.The main application field is mobile phone base stations.For such applications,GaAs power transistors and silicon LDMOS have already been used.Therefore,advantages compared with these existing devices will be required,such as high efficiency,low distortion,low noise,high reliability and,especially,low cost.However,the latter two items are normally difficult for devices using new materials.

An Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN Lateral Field Emission Device with a Nano Void Channel

We report an Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN based lateral field emission device with a nanometer scale void channel. A -45 nm void channel is obtained by etching out the SiO2 sacrificial dielectric layer between the semiconductor emitter and the metal collector. Under an atmospheric environment instead of vacuum conditions, the OaN- based field emission device shows a low turn-on voltage of 2.3 V, a high emission current of -40 μA （line current density 2.3mA/cm） at a collector bias Vc = 3 V, and a low reverse leakage of 3nA at Vc = -3 V. These characteristics are attributed to the nanometer scale void channel as well as the high density of two-dimensional electron gas in the AlGaN/GaN heterojunction. This type of device may have potential applications in high frequency mieroelectronics or nanoelectronics.

Comparison of GaN/AlGaN/AlN/GaN HEMTs Grown on Sapphire with Fe-Modulation-Doped and Unintentionally Doped GaN Buffer:Material Growth and Device Fabrication

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors （HEMTs） grown on Fe-modulation-doped （MD） and unintentionally doped （UID） GaN buffer layers are investigated and compared. Highly resistive GaN buffers （10^9Ω·cm） are induced by individual mechanisms for the electron traps＇ formation： the Fe MD buffer （sample A） and the UID buffer with high density of edge-type dislocations （7.24×10^9cm^-2, sample B）. The 300K Hall test indicates that the mobility of sample A with Fe doping （2503cm^2V^-1s^-1） is much higher than sample B （1926cm^2V^-1s^-1） due to the decreased scattering effect on the two-dimensional electron gas. HEMT devices are fabricated on the two samples and pulsed I–V measurements are conducted. Device A shows better gate pinch-off characteristics and a higher threshold voltage （-2.63V） compared with device B （-3.71V）. Lower gate leakage current ｜IGS｜ of device A （3.32×10^-7A） is present compared with that of device B （8.29×10^-7A）. When the off-state quiescent points Q_2 （V GQ2=-8V, V DQ2=0V） are on, V th hardly shifts for device A while device B shows ＋0.21V positive threshold voltage shift, resulting from the existence of electron traps associated with the dislocations in the UID-GaN buffer layer under the gate. Under pulsed I–V and transconductance G m–V GS measurement, the device with the Fe MD-doped buffer shows more potential in improving reliability upon off-state stress.

Design Consideration for High Power Density GaN Buck-Rectifier in ISOP-IPOS Converter based dc Distribution, System

GaN （gallium nitride） buck-rectifier has been proposed to realize high power density ISOP （input series and output parallel）-IPOS （input parallel and output series） converter-based dc distribution system. The ultra-low loss bi-directional switch can be developed by the GaN power device because of the low on-resistance, the high-speed switching behavior and its own device structure. The buck-rectifier using the GaN bi-directional switches has the potential to achieve higher power density than the commonly utilized boost-rectifier. Availability of the GaN-HEMT （high electron mobility transistor） for the buck rectifier has been verified taking the theoretical limit of the on-resistance and the switching loss energy into account. Design consideration for a high power density buck-rectifier has been also conducted and the application effect of the GaN bidirectional switches has been evaluated quantitatively. The ISOP-IPOS converter-based dc （direct current） distribution system takes full advantage of the buck-rectifier and the rectifier using GaN devices contributes to realizing higher power density dc distribution system.

GaN based transfer electron and avalanche transit time devices

A new model is developed to study the microwave/mm wave characteristics of two-terminal GaNbased transfer electron devices（TEDs）,namely a Gunn diode and an impact avalanche transit time（IMPATT） device.Microwave characteristics such as device efficiency and the microwave power generated are computed and compared at D-band（140 GHz center frequency） to see the potentiality of each device under the same operating conditions.It is seen that GaN-based IMPATT devices surpass the Gunn diode in the said frequency region.

Influence of growth rate on the carbon contamination and luminescence of GaN grown on silicon

The unintentional carbon doping concentration of GaN films grown by low pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition （LP-MOCVD） depends strongly on the growth rate. The concentration of carbon is varied from 2.9 × 1017 to 5.7 × 10^18 cm-3 when the growth rate increases from 2.0 to 7.2 μm/h, as detected by secondary ion mass spectroscopy. It is shown that the presence of N vacancies give rises to high carbon concentration. We show that a reduction of the carbon concentration by one order of magnitude compared to the regular sample with nearly same growth rate can be achieved by operating at an extremely high NH3 partial pressure during growth. The intensity ratios of yellow and blue luminescence to band edge luminescence in the samples are found to depend significantly on carbon concentration. The present results demonstrate direct and quantitative evidence that the carbon related defects are the origin of yellow and blue luminescence.

A Review of WBG and Si Devices Hybrid Applications

In recent years,next-generation power semiconductor devices,represented by silicon carbide(SiC)and gallium nitride(GaN),have gradually emerged.Because wide-bandgap(WBG)devices have better electrical characteristics than those of silicon(Si)based devices,they have attracted increased attention both from academic researchers and industrial engineers.Employing WBG devices will further improve the efficiency and power density of power converters.However,the current price of WBG devices remains extremely high.Thus,some researches have focused on the hybrid utilization of WBG devices and Si-based devices to achieve a tradeoff between the performance and cost.To summarize the current research on WBG/Si hybrid applications,the issues mentioned above with representative research approaches,results,and characteristics,are systematically reviewed.Finally,the current research on WBG/Si hybrid applications and their future trends are discussed.