Drive-in diffusion of Mg implanted into GaN during ultra-high pressure annealing leads to low surface acceptor concentrations. This favors p-type Schottky contact formation, which severely increases the on-state resistance of Mg-implanted GaN pn diodes (PNDs). This work aims to reduce the resistance of contacts to Mg-implanted p-GaN by incorporating Mg deposition and annealing into the contact stack, achieving a rectification ratio (RR) over 10 ^12 , a current density above 1 kA cm ^−2 and a record-low differential specific on-resistance ( R _ON ) of 0.65 mΩ.cm ^2 in Mg-implanted PNDs, offering a potential solution for improving the performance and manufacturability of vertical GaN devices that require contacts to Mg-implanted p-GaN.

We report on vertical GaN junction barrier Schottky (JBS) diodes formed by Mg ion implantation and ultrahigh -pressure annealing (UHPA). The static ON-state characteristics of the diodes show an ideality factor of 1.05, a turn-on voltage of $\sim$ 0.7 V, a current rectification ratio of $\sim$ 10 $^{11}$ , and a low differential specific ON-resistance that scales with Schottky stripe width in fair agreement with the analytical model. The reverse leakage dependence on Schottky stripe width also agrees well with the analytical model. Implanted p-n junction diodes fabricated on the same wafer exhibit avalanche breakdown in reverse bias with a positive temperature coefficient, but the forward current is limited by a series barrier. Temperature-dependent current–voltage measurements of th p-n diodes verify the presence of the implanted p-n junction and reveal an additional 0.43-eV barrier, which we hypothesize arises from a p-Schottky contact and forms a second diode back-to-back with the p-n junction. This interpretation is supported by analysis of the capacitance–voltage characteristics of the implanted p-n diodes, epitaxial p-n diodes fabricated with intentional p-Schottky contacts, and comparison to TCAD simulations. Ultimately, the presence of the p-Schottky contact does not hinder JBS diode operation. The use of diffusion-aware designs and/or diffusion reduction represents future directions for Mg implantation technology in GaN power devices.

AlN Schottky barrier diodes with low ideality factor (<1.2), low differential ON-resistance (<0.6 mΩ cm ^2 ), high current density (>5 kA cm ^−2 ), and high breakdown voltage (680 V) are reported. The device structure consisted of a two-layer, quasi-vertical design with a lightly doped AlN drift layer and a highly doped Al _0.75 Ga _0.25 N ohmic contact layer grown on AlN substrates. A combination of simulation, current–voltage measurements, and impedance spectroscopy analysis revealed that the AlN/AlGaN interface introduces a parasitic electron barrier due to the conduction band offset between the two materials. This barrier was found to limit the forward current in fabricated diodes. Further, we show that introducing a compositionally-graded layer between the AlN and the AlGaN reduces the interfacial barrier and increases the forward current density of fabricated diodes by a factor of 10 ^4 .

We investigate the electrical characteristics of Ni Schottky contacts on n-type GaN films that have undergone ultra-high-pressure annealing (UHPA), a key processing step for activating implanted Mg. Contacts deposited on these films exhibit low rectification and high leakage current compared to contacts on as-grown films. By employing an optimized surface treatment to restore the GaN surface following UHPA, we obtain Schottky contacts with a high rectification ratio of ∼10 9 , a near-unity ideality factor of 1.03, and a barrier height of ∼0.9 eV. These characteristics enable the development of GaN junction barrier Schottky diodes employing Mg implantation and UHPA.

Near-ideal behavior in Schottky contacts to Si-doped AlN was observed as evidenced by a low ideality factor of 1.5 at room temperature. A temperature-independent Schottky barrier height of 1.9 eV was extracted from temperature-dependent I–V measurements. An activation energy of ∼300 meV was observed in the series resistance, which corresponded to the ionization energy of the deep Si donor state. Both Ohmic and Schottky contacts were stable up to 650 °C, with around four orders of magnitude rectification at this elevated temperature. These results demonstrate the potential of AlN as a platform for power devices capable of operating in extreme environments.

We report on low resistivity (1.1 Ω cm) in p-type bulk doping of N-polar GaN grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. High nitrogen chemical potential growth, facilitated by high process supersaturation, was instrumental in reducing the incorporation of compensating oxygen as well as nitrogen-vacancy-related point defects. This was confirmed by photoluminescence studies and temperature-dependent Hall effect measurements. The suppressed compensation led to an order of magnitude improvement in p-type conductivity with the room-temperature hole concentration and mobility measuring 6 × 10 17 cm −3 and 9 cm 2 V −1 s −1 , respectively. These results are paramount in the pathway towards N-polar GaN power and optoelectronic devices.

We report an overview of GaN-based High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) thermal management by giving additional heat flow from the top of RF power devices. Different strategies have been tried by our laboratory over the years. All of them have been based on parallel microelectronic processing scheme to preserve cost and high frequency operation. In this article, we present two previous experimental results tried in the past namely with nano-crystalline diamond layers and more recently using boron nitride films. Material and electrical DC and microwave results are presented.

In this Letter, we unveil the high-temperature limits of N-polar GaN Schottky contacts enhanced by a low-pressure chemical vapor deposited (LPCVD) SiN interlayer. Compared to conventional Schottky diodes, the insertion of a 5 nm SiN lossy dielectric interlayer in-between Ni and N-polar GaN increases the turn-on voltage (VON) from 0.4 to 0.9 V and the barrier height (ϕB) from 0.4 to 0.8 eV. This modification also reduces the leakage current at zero bias significantly: at room temperature, the leakage current in the conventional Schottky diode is >103 larger than that observed in the device with the SiN interlayer, while at 200 °C, this ratio increases to 105. Thus, the rectification ratio (ION/IOFF) at ±1.5 V reduces to less than one at 250 °C for the conventional Schottky diode, whereas for SiN-coated diodes, rectification continues until 500 °C. The I–V characteristics of the diode with an SiN interlayer can be recovered after exposure to 400 °C or lower. Contact degradation occurs at 500 °C, although devices are not destroyed yet. Here, we report N-polar GaN Schottky contact operation up to 500 °C using an LPCVD SiN interlayer.

The ultra-wide bandgap of Al-rich AlGaN is expected to support a significantly larger breakdown field compared to GaN, but the reported performance thus far has been limited by the use of foreign substrates. In this Letter, the material and electrical properties of Al0.85Ga0.15N/Al0.6Ga0.4N high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) grown on a 2-in. single crystal AlN substrate are investigated, and it is demonstrated that native AlN substrates unlock the potential for Al-rich AlGaN to sustain large fields in such devices. We further study how Ohmic contacts made directly to a Si-doped channel layer reduce the knee voltage and increase the output current density. High-quality AlGaN growth is confirmed via scanning transmission electron microscopy, which also reveals the absence of metal penetration at the Ohmic contact interface and is in contrast to established GaN HEMT technology. Two-terminal mesa breakdown characteristics with 1.3 μm separation possess a record-high breakdown field strength of ∼11.5 MV/cm for an undoped Al0.6Ga0.4N-channel layer. The breakdown voltages for three-terminal devices measured with gate-drain distances of 4 and 9 μm are 850 and 1500 V, respectively.

We report a kV class, low ON-resistance, vertical GaN junction barrier Schottky (JBS) diode with selective-area p-regions formed via Mg implantation followed by high-temperature, ultra-high pressure (UHP) post-implantation activation anneal. The JBS has an ideality factor of 1.03, a turn-on voltage of 0.75 V, and a specific differential ON-resistance of 0.6 mΩ·cm 2 . The breakdown voltage of the JBS diode is 915 V, corresponding to a maximum electric field of 3.3 MV cm −1 . These results underline that high-performance GaN JBS can be realized using Mg implantation and high-temperature UHP post-activation anneal.

In recent years, there has been a surge of research and commercial interest in gallium nitride (GaN)-based devices for power conversion applications. This is largely motivated by the wide bandgap of GaN, which offers a unipolar limit of performance that is larger than that of silicon and silicon carbide. This performance ceiling, however, can be surpassed with the use of superjunction (SJ) structures, a strategy that has now been experimentally proven in both vertical Si- and SiC-based technologies. The ability to selectively dope lateral regions of a semiconductor is a requirement for SJ fabrication, with typical schemes relying on ion implantation, epitaxial regrowth or a combination of both. However, due to the challenges associated with applying conventional selective area doping techniques to GaN, vertical GaN SJ structures have remained elusive. Recently, our team proposed the use of lateral polar junctions (LPJs) to form vertical GaN SJ devices. This approach exploits the natural doping asymmetry between the N-polar and Ga-polar crystal orientations to simultaneously grow N-polar GaN for the n-type pillars and Ga-polar GaN for the p-type pillars. The first part of this talk will present a design framework for GaN SJ devices. This will reveal several critical design requirements: 1) doping in N-polar GaN must be reduced below 5 × 10 17 cm -3 to achieve kV-class devices, 2) charge must be tightly balanced between neighboring pillars in the SJ structure to obtain efficient performance and 3) the barrier height to the N-polar GaN region must be tuned to suppress leakage currents and avoid bipolar operation. The next part of the talk will focus on the characterization of rectifying contacts to N-polar GaN. While the analysis of Schottky barrier diodes proved the ability to reduce doping to relevant levels, the low barrier height and enhanced chemical sensitivity of N-polar GaN make it challenging to process adequate devices. Thus, low-pressure chemical vapor deposited (LPCVD) silicon nitride (SiN) interlayers were introduced to increase the barrier height. This approach is enabled by surface-termination dependent barrier height and an amphoteric miniband for enhanced conduction via the interlayer. Moreover, the use of the LPCVD SiN interlayer enables operation of the diodes up to 400 °C compared to less than 200 °C for the reference case. In addition, N-polar GaN camel diodes were also designed, fabricated and tested to better tune the barrier height. The latter structure was incorporated into the first charge-balanced GaN superjunction device. A detailed electrical analysis of the GaN LPJ device will represent the final portion of this talk. The successful demonstration of these experimental building blocks paves the way for the GaN LPJ to be used in future high-voltage GaN SJ devices.

In this work, we report on recent advances in UVC emitters and detectors based on AlGaN on single crystal AlN substrates. We perform point defect management via chemical potential control and extended defect management via growth on low threading dislocation density single crystal AlN substrates and demonstrate reliable UVC LEDs at high power densities (>40 Wcm −2 ) on transparent AlN substrates and high gain (>300000) solar blind avalanche photodiodes with high quantum efficiency (>70%) and near ideal breakdown fields. We also report a comparison with devices on foreign substrates (sapphire) with those on native AlN substrates revealing a general improvement in performance by orders of magnitude.

Herein, Al‐rich AlGaN‐based avalanche photodiodes (APDs) grown on single crystal AlN substrates high ultraviolet‐C sensitivity for λ < 200 nm are fabricated, while exhibiting blindness to λ > 250 nm. A maximum quantum efficiency of 68% and peak gain of 320 000 are estimated resulting in a figure of merit of ≈220 000 in devices with ϕ = 100 μm. As expected, a decrease in gain with increase in device size is observed and a gain of ≈20 000 is estimated in devices with ϕ = 400 μm. Overall, two orders of magnitude higher performance are observed in APDs on single crystal AlN substrates compared to those on sapphire.

We demonstrate a pathway employing crystal polarity controlled asymmetric impurity incorporation in the wide bandgap nitride material system to enable 3D doping control during the crystal growth process. The pathway involves polarity specific supersaturation modulated growth of lateral polar structures of alternating Ga- and N-polar GaN domains. A STEM technique of integrated differential phase contrast is used to image the atomic structure of the different polar domains and their single atomic plane boundaries. As a demonstration, 1 μm wide alternating Ga- and N-polar GaN domains exhibiting charge balanced and periodic domains for superjunction technology were grown. The challenges in characterizing the resulting 3D doping profile were addressed with atom probe tomography with atomic scale compositional resolution corroborating capacitance measurements and secondary-ion mass spectroscopy analysis.

We demonstrate that theoretical breakdown fields can be realized in practically dislocation free Al-rich AlGaN p-n junctions grown on AlN single crystal substrates. Furthermore, we also demonstrate a leakage current density in AlGaN that is independent of the device area, indicating a bulk leakage phenomenon and not surface or mesa-edge related. Accordingly, we identified the Poole–Frenkel emission from two types of point-defect traps in AlGaN as the primary source of reverse leakage before breakdown. Mg-doped AlGaN exhibited leakage currents due to a shallow trap at ∼0.16 eV in contrast with leakage currents observed in Si-doped AlGaN due to a deep trap at ∼1.8 eV.

Introduction: The large critical electric field (E C ) of ultra-wide band bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors makes them attractive candidates for next-generation high power and high frequency electronics. High Al-content AlGaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are among the most widely reported UWBG devices, but most are epitaxially grown on foreign substrates with significant dislocation densities (>10 9 cm -2 ) that may compromise material quality and reduce E C . For example, the breakdown limits of buffer mesas for AlN MESFETs [1] and AlN/Al 0.5 Ga 0.5 N HEMTs [2] on sapphire were 3.1 MV/cm and 6 MV/cm, respectively. Here, we demonstrate Al 0.85 Ga 0.15 N/Al 0.6 Ga 0.4 N HEMTs grown on native AlN substrates, and report that the AlGaN layers can withstand fields >9 MV/cm.

We study the behavior of N-polar GaN Schottky diodes with low-pressure chemical vapor deposited (LPCVD) SiN interlayers and unveil the important role of an amphoteric miniband formed in this interlayer due to a previously identified and dominating Si dangling bond defect. Through analysis of temperature-dependent current–voltage (I–V–T), capacitance–voltage (C–V), and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements, we observe that when nickel is deposited on LPCVD SiN pretreated with hydrofluoric acid, the SiN/GaN interface is responsible for determining the overall system's barrier height. By contrast, contact formation on oxidized LPCVD SiN leads to a metal/SiN-dominant barrier. We, consequently, propose band diagrams that account for an amphoteric miniband in LPCVD SiN, leading to a new understanding of LPCVD SiN as a lossy dielectric with surface barrier-dependent behavior.

We demonstrate large area (25 000 μm2) Al-rich AlGaN-based avalanche photodiodes (APDs) grown on single crystal AlN substrates operating with differential (the difference in photocurrent and dark current) signal gain of 100 000 at 90 pW (<1 μW cm−2) illumination with very low dark currents <0.1 pA at room temperature under ambient light. The high gain in large area AlGaN APDs is attributed to a high breakdown voltage at 340 V, corresponding to very high breakdown fields ∼9 MV cm−1 as a consequence of low threading and screw dislocation densities < 103 cm−2. The maximum charge collection efficiency of 30% was determined at 255 nm, corresponding to the bandgap of Al0.65Ga0.35N, with a response of 0.06 A/W. No response was detected for λ > 280 nm, establishing solar blindness of the device.

Despite being the most widely used dielectric for passivation of GaN-based lateral devices, amorphous silicon-nitride still faces many stability challenges, which arise from its complex bulk electronic and interface properties on the polar (Al)GaN surfaces. In this investigation, SiN has been applied as an ultra-thin interlayer (∼3–5 nm) in vertical contact structures on Ga-polar and N-polar GaN templates to study the metal–insulator–semiconductor- (MIS-) like system and better understand the interaction between the polar surface and its dielectric overlayer. We describe the role of amphoteric ≡Si centers in SiN in passivating and providing the polarization countercharge to Al/GaN of different polarities. The consequent requirements of the concentration profile of the amphoteric defects and the corresponding chemical profile of SiN is discussed. The importance of SiN surface termination and their influence on the interface potential on Al/GaN that determines device performance and reliability is also shown. Finally, a pathway to highly stable and reliable ohmic contacts to n-type Ga-polar GaN without instabilities associated with metal directly alloying with GaN as in the case of traditional contacts is proposed.