Papers by Keyword: Group-III Nitrides

Abstract: With the increasing requirements for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) regarding stability, miniaturization and integration, novel materials such as wide band gap semiconductors are receiving more attention. The outstanding properties of group III-nitrides offer many more possibilities for the implementation of new functionalities and a variety of technologies are available to realize group III-nitride based MEMS. In this work we demonstrate the application of these techniques for the fabrication of full-nitride MEMS. It includes a novel actuation and sensing principle based on the piezoelectric effect and employing a two-dimensional electron gas confined in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures as integrated back electrode. Furthermore, the actuation of flexural and longitudinal vibration modes in resonator bridges are demonstrated as well as their sensing properties.

Abstract: Epitaxial group-III nitride films, although in single crystalline form, contain still a large number of threading dislocations. These set limits to performance and lifetime of devices, notably to high power structures like lasers. The strategy in material development was and will be (at least until lattice-matched substrates become available) to reduce the dislocation densities. The present contribution elaborates on possible dislocation origination mechanisms that determine the population of dislocations in the epitaxial layers. These mechanisms can be controlled to a certain degree by proper deposition procedures. The achieved dislocation populations then determine the processes that can reduce the dislocation densities during growth of the epitaxial layers. The mutual annihilation of threading dislocations is rather efficient although affected by the glide properties of the growing epitaxial crystal and the thermal stresses during the cooling down after growth.

Abstract: Due to the lack of GaN wafers, so far, group-III nitrides are mostly grown on sapphire or SiC substrates. Silicon offers an attractive alternative because of its low cost, large wafer area, and physical benefits such as the possibility of chemical etching, lower hardness, good thermal conductivity, and electrical conducting or isolating for light emitting devices or transistor structures, respectively. However, for a long time, a technological breakthrough of GaN-on-silicon has been thought to be impossible because of the cracking problem originating in the huge difference of the thermal expansion coefficients between GaN and silicon which leads to tensile strain and cracking of the layers when cooling down. However, in recent years, several approaches to prevent cracking and wafer bowing have been successfully applied. Nowadays, device-relevant thicknesses of crackfree group-III-nitrides can be grown on silicon. To reach this goal the most important issues were the identification of the physical origin of strains and its engineering by means of in situ monitoring during metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy.