J. Y. Tsao,* S. Chowdhury, M. A. Hollis,* D. Jena, N. M. Johnson, K. A. Jones, R. J. Kaplar,* S. Rajan, C. G. Van de Walle, E. Bellotti, C. L. Chua, R. Collazo, M. E. Coltrin, J. A. Cooper, K. R. Evans, S. Graham, T. A. Grotjohn, E. R. Heller, M. Higashiwaki, M. S. Islam, P. W. Juodawlkis, M. A. Khan, A. D. Koehler, J. H. Leach, U. K. Mishra, R. J. Nemanich, R. C. N. Pilawa-Podgurski, J. B. Shealy, Z. Sitar, M. J. Tadjer, A. F. Witulski, M. Wraback, and J. A. Simmons

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Ultrawide-Bandgap Semiconductors: Research Opportunities and Challenges

Dissipation in nanoelectromechanical systems

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a wide bandgap semiconductor material and is the most popular material after silicon in the semiconductor industry. The prime movers behind this trend are LEDs, microwave, and more recently, power electronics. New areas of research also include spintronics and nanoribbon transistors, which leverage some of the unique properties of GaN. GaN has electron mobility comparable with silicon, but with a bandgap that is three times larger, making it an excellent candidate for high-power applications and high-temperature operation. The ability to form thin-AlGaN/GaN heterostructures, which exhibit the 2-D electron gas phenomenon leads to high-electron mobility transistors, which exhibit high Johnson's figure of merit. Another interesting direction for GaN research, which is largely unexplored, is GaN-based micromechanical devices or GaN microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). To fully unlock the potential of GaN and realize new advanced all-GaN integrated circuits, it is essential to cointegrate passive devices (such as resonators and filters), sensors (such as temperature and gas sensors), and other more than Moore functional devices with GaN active electronics. Therefore, there is a growing interest in the use of GaN as a mechanical material. This paper reviews the electromechanical, thermal, acoustic, and piezoelectric properties of GaN, and describes the working principle of some of the reported high-performance GaN-based microelectromechanical components. It also provides an outlook for possible research directions in GaN MEMS.

Gallium Nitride as an Electromechanical Material

The importance of thermoelastic damping as a fundamental dissipation mechanism for small-scale mechanical resonators is evaluated in light of recent efforts to design high-Q micrometer- and nanometer-scale electromechanical systems. The equations of linear thermoelasticity are used to give a simple derivation for thermoelastic damping of small flexural vibrations in thin beams. It is shown that Zener’s well-known approximation by a Lorentzian with a single thermal relaxation time slightly deviates from the exact expression.

Thermoelastic Damping in Micro- and Nano-Mechanical Systems.

Ultrathin AlN/GaN crystalline porous freestanding nanomembranes are fabricated on Si(111) by selective silicon etching, and self-assembled into various geometries such as tubes, spirals, and curved sheets. Nanopores with sizes from several to tens of nanometers are produced in nanomembranes of 20-35 nm nominal thickness, caused by the island growth of AlN on Si(111). No crystal-orientation dependence is observed while releasing the AlN/GaN nanomembranes from the Si substrate indicating that the driving stress mainly originates from the zipping effect among islands during growth. Competition between different relaxation mechanisms is experimentally revealed for different nanomembrane geometries and well-described by numerical calculations. The cathodoluminescence emission from GaN nanomembranes reveals a weak peak close to the GaN bandgap, which is dramatically enhanced by electron irradiation.

Fabrication, Self-Assembly, and Properties of Ultrathin AlN/GaN Porous Crystalline Nanomembranes: Tubes, Spirals, and Curved Sheets

Wide-bandgap semiconductors represent an attractive option to meet the increasing demands of micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) by offering new functionalities, high stability, biocompatibility and the potential for miniaturization and integration. Here, we report on resonant MEMS and NEMS devices with functional layers of SiC, AlN and AlGaN/GaN heterostructures on different substrates, which have been investigated and analysed in the course of an interdisciplinary research focus programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG). The specific deposition and etching technologies necessary for the three-dimensional micro-structuring are explained. Further, the implementation of appropriate electromechanical transduction schemes is discussed. In case of SiC and AlN resonators, actuation and sensing was achieved by a magnetomotive scheme. A piezoelectric coupling scheme where the counter electrode is formed by the two-dimensional electron gas at the interface of the III/V heterostructure was realized for the AlGaN/GaN resonators.



Thus, flexural and longitudinal vibration modes were excited and characterized using electrical and optical techniques. The measured key parameters of resonant frequency and quality factor are related to geometry, material and environmental parameters using analytical and finite element (FE) models. Finally, potential sensor applications are experimentally investigated.

Micro‐ and nano‐electromechanical resonators based on SiC and group III‐nitrides for sensor applications

Free-standing piezoelectric AlGaN/GaN beam resonators have been prepared on silicon substrates. The two-dimensional electron gas at the interface of the III/V heterostructure has been employed to act as back electrode for the piezoelectric active layer. The fundamental mode as well as higher order resonant modes of flexural vibration has been excited piezoelectrically and analyzed using optical laser–Doppler vibrometry. The experimental investigations were carried out under normal ambient conditions. The specific piezoelectric actuation scheme is described and the dependence of the measured resonant frequencies between 0.2 and 8.1 MHz on geometry and material parameters is investigated.

Two-dimensional electron gas based actuation of piezoelectric AlGaN/GaN microelectromechanical resonators

AlGaN/GaN-heterostructures on (111) 3C-SiC/Si pseudo substrates for high frequency applications

In this work we present a novel concept of piezoelectrically actuated MEMS resonators based on AlGaN/GaN-heterostructures. The 2DEG, which is confined at the AlGaN/GaN interface, serves as back electrode for piezoelectric actuation and read-out. Using the inverse piezoelectric effect longitudinal in-plane mechanical oscillations could be exited by applying a RF signal to the drive contacts. Through the charges, which were generated by the direct piezoelectric effect a sensor signal could be detected at the sense contacts of the integrated resonator structure. This enables the measurement of longitudinal resonant frequencies up to the 4th mode with values from 3 to 63 MHz. The investigations were carried out in various ambient pressure conditions, which exemplarily demonstrate the sensitivity of the quality factor to environmental parameters. Thereby the AlGaN/GaN-resonators showed the highest sensitivity in the region of viscous damping, which leads to the possibility of sensor applications concerning the property determination of gaseous or even liquid surrounding conditions. (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Piezoelectric actuated epitaxially grown AlGaN/GaN‐resonators

Free-standing piezoelectric AlGaN/GaN beam resonators have been prepared on silicon substrates using a semiconductor fabrication process. To realize the back electrode for the piezoelectric active layer, the two-dimensional electron gas at the interface of the III/V heterostructure was employed. Longitudinal acoustic resonances have been excited and detected electrically. The fundamental and higher order vibration modes were analyzed in the frequency domain. The dependences of the measured resonant frequencies between 3.8 and 63.0 MHz are related to geometrical and material parameters. The sensitivity of the resonant response to environmental parameters is demonstrated exemplarily by investigating its dependence on ambient pressure.

F. Niebelschuetz

Papers

Micro‐ and nano‐electromechanical resonators based on SiC and group III‐nitrides for sensor applications

Two-dimensional electron gas based actuation of piezoelectric AlGaN/GaN microelectromechanical resonators

AlGaN/GaN-heterostructures on (111) 3C-SiC/Si pseudo substrates for high frequency applications

Piezoelectric actuated epitaxially grown AlGaN/GaN‐resonators

Resonant Piezoelectric ALGaN/GaN MEMS Sensors in Longitudinal Mode Operation