Thermal Modeling of GaN HEMTs on Sapphire and Diamond

Abstract

Wide bandgap semiconductors have entered into Naval radar use and will eventually replace vacuum tube and conventional solid-state amplifiers for all modern military radar and communications applications. Gallium Nitride (GaN) High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) are on the leading edge of wide bandgap technology and have the performance characteristics to dominate in high power - high bandwidth applications. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Missile Defense Agency (MDA) are all sponsoring research projects to apply wide bandgap technology. This thesis studies the effects of changing the substrate material of an existing GaN HEMT from sapphire to diamond through the use of commercially available Silvaco software for modeling and simulation. The unparalleled thermal properties of diamond are expected to dramatically decrease device temperatures and increase component lifetimes and reliability.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA443389

Entities

People

  • Roman P. Salm Iii

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Compound Semiconductors
  • Electrical Properties
  • Electron Mobility
  • Electronics Laboratories
  • Field Effect Transistors
  • Free Electrons
  • Gallium Nitrides
  • High Electron Mobility Transistors
  • Jet Propulsion
  • Materials
  • Power Electronics
  • Semiconductor Devices
  • Semiconductors
  • Silicon Carbide
  • Three Dimensional
  • Transistors
  • Two Dimensional

Readers

  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics