Investigations of Electronic Defects in Advanced Nitride Semiconductors for Next Generation Electronics
Abstract
Investigations of Electronic Defects in Advanced Nitride Semiconductors for Next Generation Electronics Steven A. Ringel, Ph.D. The Ohio State University Abstract Future electronics used in a variety of government applications require continued innovations in semiconductor device technologies to meet the increasingly demanding specifications for those applications. In particular, semiconductor devices based on gallium nitride (GaN) has shown extraordinary capacity to meet that demand due to their unusually advantageous basic materials properties and the ability to engineer those properties by clever material and device designs. However, the fundamental nature of the GaN materials system also creates a propensity to incorporate atomic defects within the crystal structure and these defects, if not mitigated, can render the theoretical advantages of GaN devices to well below desired performance. So as GaN technologies mature, in terms of production-driven advances such as very high growth rate epitaxy, and as new innovations occur in parallel that open up performance advances beyond state of the art, such as the use of novel barrier materials for next generation GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and the exploration of growing device structures on the so-called nitrogen-face of the GaN crystal as opposed to the more common gallium face, understanding of how crystal defects are created, their concentrations, and their basic properties is essential for the device designer. To that end, this program supports a comprehensive and systematic exploration of defects in novel GaN materials and heterostructures for next generation electronics. The goals are defined within the context of an over-arching theme to advance GaN electronics based on two primary directives: (a) quantitative determination of electronic properties of crystal defects in GaN and related alloy materials grown using high growth rate epitaxy leading toward the introduction of this method into future device production and (b) investigation and elucidation of defect states in novel nitrogen-face GaN materials and GaN-based heterostructures, which open new device engineering opportunities and beyond state-of-art performance compared with conventional GaN devices. Through the attainment of basic knowledge of defects in N-face nitrides and high flux MBE growth, we aim to advance these materials into the next generation of GaN electronics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512077
Entities
People
- Steven A. Ringel
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Ohio State University
- United States Navy