News: Microelectronics
8 January 2024
GaN HEMTs on diamond demonstrates twice the heat dissipation of GaN-on-SiC
A research team led by associate professor Jianbo Liang and professor Naoteru Shigekawa of the Graduate School of Engineering at Japan’s Osaka Metropolitan University has fabricated gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) using diamond as a substrate (‘High Thermal Stability and Low Thermal Resistance of Large Area GaN/3C-SiC/Diamond Junctions for Practical Device Processes’, published in ‘Small’ DOI: 10.1002/smll.202305574).
With the increasing miniaturization of semiconductor devices, problems arise such as increases in power density and heat generation that can affect the performance, reliability and lifetime of the devices. Effective thermal management is hence crucial. Diamond, which has the highest thermal conductivity of all natural materials, is an ideal substrate material but has not yet been put to practical use due to the difficulties of bonding diamond to GaN elements.
The technology developed at Osaka Metropolitan University is reckoned to have more than twice the heat dissipation performance of transistors of the same shape fabricated on a silicon carbide (SiC) substrate. To maximize the high thermal conductivity of diamond, the researchers integrated a layer of cubic polytype 3C-SiC between GaN and diamond. This technique significantly reduces the thermal resistance of the interface and improves heat dissipation.
“This new technology has the potential to significantly reduce CO2 emissions and potentially revolutionize the development of power and radio frequency electronics with improved thermal management capabilities,” says Liang.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/smll.202305574
