Papers by Keyword: Gallium Nitride (GaN)

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the parasitic capacitor to the Gallium-Nitride (GaN) based high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT). Because of the high switching frequency operation, the parasitic inductor has caught a lot of attention when the GaN HEMT is applied in the high power applications. However, the impact of parasitic capacitor to the GaN HEMT is not discussed in literatures. A prototype circuit is built and tested to evaluate the impacts of parasitic capacitor to the GaN HEMT performance. The results show that the parasitic capacitor can induce voltage spike and damage the GaN HEMT.

Abstract: Spin coating growth and characterisations of c-oriented wurtzite structure gallium nitride (GaN) thin film on silicon (Si) substrate with (100) orientation was reported. The precursor solution consisted of a readily available gallium (III) nitrate hydrate powder, ethanol and diethanolamine as starting material, solvent and surfactant. All the structural and optical results showed that c-oriented wurtzite GaN thin film was deposited on Si (100) substrate. Compared with earlier reported work using sol-gel deposition, significant improvements in the structural quality of the GaN thin film were observed. The FWHM value of the thin film was approximately 2.60°. The framework described here is both an easy in setup and simple method as compared to other method such as MBE, MOCVD, and radio frequency sputtering to produce c-oriented wurtzite structure GaN thin film.

Abstract: In this communication, the use of gallium nitride doped with beryllium as an efficient converter for white light emitting diode is proposed. Until now beryllium in this material was mostly studied as a potential p-type dopant. Unfortunately, the realization of p-type conductivity in such a way seems impossible. However, due to a very intensive yellow emission, bulk crystals doped with beryllium can be used as light converters. In this communication, it is demonstrated that realisation of such diode is possible and realisation of a colour rendering index is close to that necessary for white light emission.

Abstract: So far, most of the SiC homoepitaxy has been realized on 8-deg-off and 4-deg-off substrates, whereas GaN heteroepitaxy is done on SiC on-axis (up to 0.3 deg off). As 6-inch SiC wafers are being introduced into the market, a decrease of the substrate off-cut to 2 deg for SiC homoepitaxy is desirable to reduce the manufacturing costs. If both, GaN heteroepitaxy and SiC homoepitaxy are successful on 2-deg-off SiC substrates, this would pave the way to monolithic integration of both kinds of devices, as well as to obtain cheap insulating SiC substrates for AlGaN/GaN microwave and THz devices. In this work, we present our present status of AlGaN/GaN growth on SiC 2-deg off. Comparing to the on-axis situation, we obtained similar structural (XRD and TEM data) and electrical characteristics, but not morphological ones. Therefore, we propose two ways of a decrease of AlGaN surface roughness when grown on SiC 2 deg-off: i) by planarization, ii) by lateral patterning.

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to optimize the epitaxial layer structure of an AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) for high power density at high frequency. The idea is to play on the polarization engineering with the different layers of the epitaxial stack. The influence of the cap and barrier layer thicknesses, the aluminum content in the barrier and the insertion of an AlGaN buffer layer are studied through the electron gas density, electron mobility and sheet resistance. This permits to find out the best trade-off in order to satisfy the requirements for high performances.

Abstract: The first principles simulations are performed to investigate the adsorption and diffusion of aluminum, gallium and indium atoms on semi-polar gallium nitrides surface, the calculations are performed by using the Car–Parrinello molecular dynamics (CPMD) method. The aluminum ad-atoms adsorption in path 1 and path 3 are much stable than in path 2. The maximum adsorption energy of path1, path2 and path3 are different, which reveal that a different barrier energy pathway between indium ad-atom diffuse along path 1, path2 and path3. Our calculation results reveal that diffusion barriers of aluminum, gallium and indium atoms on semi-polar gallium nitride surface are anisotropy.

Abstract: Gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon (Si) is governed by the possibility to use this family of semiconductor for novel optoelectronic devices. GaN layers are deposited by MOCVD on silicon Si (111) using AlGaN buffer layer. We have studied the microstructure quality of the films. From SEM, TEM and AFM observations, we have observed that the films exhibit a good quality: the films are highly oriented (0001) with a smooth surface morphology (roughness of 12nm). We have completely characterized the optical properties using the prism coupling technique.

Abstract: We made the modeling and simulation of the previously experimental GaN photocathode. During the construction of the GaN model, we found some important properties that influence the final simulation result, which includes: the settings of the grid, the definition of the cesium layer and the simulation method that is used when processing the calculation. The result shows that at some wavelengths, the spectral response changed very abruptly and its cut off wavelength was 380nm not 365nm. This early job supplies the inspiration for the further research work in this area.

Abstract: In this article we demonstrate the high sensitivity AlGaN/GaN circular HEMT (C-HEMT) hydrogen gas sensor with new gate interfacial Pt/NiO layer. The wide band-gap III-nitride semiconductor heterostructure allows the sensor operation at elevated temperatures. Likewise, the C-HEMT sensing device is easy to prepare because the MESA insulation step can be omitted. Moreover, the I-V characteristics of ring gate diodes with a dominant thermionic emission of electrons can be easly achieved by elimination of tunneling currents induced on the MESA-etched edges. The Pt/NiO stacked gate absorption layer has nanocrystalline structure, what increases the surface-to-volume ratio. Consequently, the hydrogen gas is more efficiently dissociated at low temperature. Comparing to reference Pt/AlGaN/GaN diode sensor, the optimum operation temperature decreases from 250 oC towards 50oC and the hydrogen detection efficiency is enhanced about 10 times. This is desirable for battery-powered sensors with low current consumption. On the other hand, the fabricated sensor shows longer reaction and regeneration time constants. This is due to longer diffusion path that hydrogen atoms must overcome to reach the AlGaN semiconductor surface.

Abstract: A circular high electron mobility transistor (C-HEMT) prepared on the AlGaN/GaN membrane surface has been investigated and its potential for pressure sensing has been already demonstrated. The key issue in the design process of such heterostructure based MEMS sensors is the stress engineering. This way we can scale the sensor performance, measured pressure range and sensitivity. Especially, the knowledge of the exact value of the residual stress in membranes (caused by deposition process) helps us to optimize the sensing devices. In this work, the residual stress determination method in gallium nitride circular shaped membrane is reported. It is shown that resonant frequency method using Laser Doppler Vibrometry (LDV) for membrane vibration measurement seems to be an appropriate technique to determine the residual stress in micro-scale membranes. Circularly shaped AlGaN/GaN micro-membranes are excited by acoustic short time pulse. The decay oscillating motion of the membrane is recorded by oscilloscope. By FFT spectral analysis of the signals the resonance frequencies are obtained. For the sample studied, the natural frequency mode resonance peak is used to define the residual stress level. To verify the observed stress in investigated membranes, prestressed modal analysis in finite element method (FEM) code ANSYS is performed. The stress extracted from the measured frequency is taken as an initial stress state of the modelled membrane. Experimentally obtained shock spectra are compared with that computed by FEM simulation.