TR2016-117

Beyond Thermal Management: Incorporating p-Diamond Back-barriers and Cap-layers into AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

    •  Zhang, Y., Teo, K.H., Palacios, T., "Beyond Thermal Management: Incorporating p-Diamond Back-barriers and Cap-layers into AlGaN/GaN HEMTs", IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, DOI: 10.1109/​TED.2016.2553136, Vol. 63, No. 6, pp. 2340-2345, April 2016.
      BibTeX TR2016-117 PDF
      • @article{Zhang2016apr,
      • author = {Zhang, Yuhao and Teo, Koon Hoo and Palacios, Tomas},
      • title = {Beyond Thermal Management: Incorporating p-Diamond Back-barriers and Cap-layers into AlGaN/GaN HEMTs},
      • journal = {IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices},
      • year = 2016,
      • volume = 63,
      • number = 6,
      • pages = {2340--2345},
      • month = apr,
      • doi = {10.1109/TED.2016.2553136},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2016-117}
      • }
  • Research Area:

    Electric Systems

Abstract:

This work explores the use of p-diamond back-barriers and cap-layers to enhance the performance of GaN-based high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). Diamond can offer a heavily-doped p-type layer, which are complementary to GaN electronics. Self-consistent electro-thermal simulations reveal that the use of p-diamond back-barriers and cap-layers can increase the breakdown voltage of GaN-based HEMTs by four-fold, at the same time that they enhance the 2DEG confinement and reduce short channel effects. These results highlight that p-diamond layers can improve the performance of GaN HEMTs for high-power and high-frequency applications beyond the thermal improvements pursued until now.