Gallium nitride (GaN) and its allied binaries InN and AIN as well as their ternary compounds have gained an unprecedented attention due to their wide-ranging applications encompassing green, blue, violet, and ultraviolet (UV) emitters and detectors (in photon ranges inaccessible by other semiconductors) and high-power amplifiers. However, even the best of the three binaries, GaN, contains many structural and point defects caused to a large extent by lattice and stacking mismatch with substrates. These defects notably affect the electrical and optical properties of the host material and can seriously degrade the performance and reliability of devices made based on these nitride semiconductors. Even though GaN broke the long-standing paradigm that high density of dislocations precludes acceptable device performance, point defects have taken the center stage as they exacerbate efforts to increase the efficiency of emitters, increase laser operation lifetime, and lead to anomalies in electronic devices. The p...

/pdf/luminescence-properties-of-defects-in-gan-4hjs241x7f.pdf

Luminescence properties of defects in GaN

Wide bandgap semiconductors show superior material properties enabling potential power device operation at higher temperatures, voltages, and switching speeds than current Si technology. As a result, a new generation of power devices is being developed for power converter applications in which traditional Si power devices show limited operation. The use of these new power semiconductor devices will allow both an important improvement in the performance of existing power converters and the development of new power converters, accounting for an increase in the efficiency of the electric energy transformations and a more rational use of the electric energy. At present, SiC and GaN are the more promising semiconductor materials for these new power devices as a consequence of their outstanding properties, commercial availability of starting material, and maturity of their technological processes. This paper presents a review of recent progresses in the development of SiC- and GaN-based power semiconductor devices together with an overall view of the state of the art of this new device generation.

A Survey of Wide Bandgap Power Semiconductor Devices

An object is to provide a semiconductor device of which a manufacturing process is not complicated and by which cost can be suppressed, by forming a thin film transistor using an oxide semiconductor film typified by zinc oxide, and a manufacturing method thereof. For the semiconductor device, a gate electrode is formed over a substrate; a gate insulating film is formed covering the gate electrode; an oxide semiconductor film is formed over the gate insulating film; and a first conductive film and a second conductive film are formed over the oxide semiconductor film. The oxide semiconductor film has at least a crystallized region in a channel region.

Semiconductor device, and manufacturing method thereof

and Perspectives Sophie Carenco,†,‡,§,∥,⊥ David Portehault,*,†,‡,§ Ced́ric Boissier̀e,†,‡,§ Nicolas Meźailles, and Cleḿent Sanchez*,†,‡,§ †Chimie de la Matier̀e Condenseé de Paris, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR 7574, Colleg̀e de France, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France ‡Chimie de la Matier̀e Condenseé de Paris, CNRS, UMR 77574, Colleg̀e de France, 11 Place Marcellin Berthelot, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France Chimie de la Matier̀e Condenseé de Paris, Colleg̀e de France, 11 Place Marcellin Berthelot, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France Laboratory Heteroelements and Coordination, Chemistry Department, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS-UMR 7653, Palaiseau, France

Nanoscaled metal borides and phosphides: recent developments and perspectives

Silicon carbide (SiC) power devices have been investigated extensively in the past two decades, and there are many devices commercially available now. Owing to the intrinsic material advantages of SiC over silicon (Si), SiC power devices can operate at higher voltage, higher switching frequency, and higher temperature. This paper reviews the technology progress of SiC power devices and their emerging applications. The design challenges and future trends are summarized at the end of the paper.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielaam/41/8031005/7815312-aam.pdf

Review of Silicon Carbide Power Devices and Their Applications

Due to the large ionization energy of Mg acceptors in GaN, dynamic punch-through will occur in vertical GaN MOSFETs. To avoid this, higher doping and/or a thicker p-body region should be utilized. However, this increases the channel resistance. In this letter, we suggest that the Poole–Frenkel (P–F) effect has significant impact on dynamic punch-through because of the high electric field in the depletion region under a large bias voltage. Systematic TCAD simulations of simplified vertical GaN MOSFET structures were carried out. We show that the device design considering the P–F effect results in a reduction in the increase in channel resistance.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.35848/1882-0786/abd960/pdf

Design guidelines suppressing dynamic punch-through in GaN vertical MOSFETs by considering the Poole-Frenkel effect

GaN epilayers have been grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy on ZrB2 substrates with close in-plane lattice match. Growth processes utilizing both low-temperature GaN (LT-GaN) and AlN nucleation layers were investigated. The x-ray ω-scan widths for the optimized LT-GaN nucleation process were 400 and 750 arcsec for symmetric and asymmetric reflections, respectively. When using LT-GaN nucleation layers, the chemical incompatibility of ZrB2 results in a high dislocation density despite the in-plane lattice match. The epilayer polarity was N-polar for LT-GaN nucleation layers under all conditions investigated. For AlN nucleation layers, Ga-polar epilayers were obtained under suitable conditions (Al-rich, lower nucleation temperatures) for nominal AlN thickness as low as 1 nm. From RHEED analysis it appears that a psuedomorphic Al wetting layer forms on the ZrB2 surface, and that using AlN as the nucleation layer may offer promise for reducing the epilayer defect density.

Molecular beam epitaxy of GaN on lattice-matched ZrB2 substrates using low-temperature GaN and AlN nucleation layers

This work examined the intentional generation of recombination centers in GaN p– n junctions on freestanding GaN substrates. Irradiation with a 4.2 MeV proton beam was used to create a uniform distribution of vacancies and interstitials across GaN p+/ n− and p−/ n+ junctions through anode electrodes. With increasing proton dose, the effective doping concentrations were found to be reduced. Because the reduction in the doping concentration was much higher than the hydrogen atom concentration, this decrease could not be attributed solely to carrier compensation resulting from interstitial hydrogen atoms. In fact, more than half of the electron and hole compensation was caused by the presence of point defects. These defects evidently served as Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH) recombination centers such that the SRH lifetimes were reduced to several picoseconds from several hundred picoseconds prior to irradiation. The compensation for holes in the p−/ n+ junctions was almost double that for electrons in the p+/ n− junctions. Furthermore, the SRH lifetimes associated with p−/ n+ junctions were shorter than those for p+/ n− junctions for a given proton dose. These differences can be explained by variations in the charge state and/or the formation energy of intrinsic point defects in the p-type and n-type GaN layers. The results of the present work indicate the asymmetry of defect formation in GaN based on the fact that intrinsic point defects in p-type GaN readily compensate for holes.

Effects of proton irradiation-induced point defects on Shockley–Read–Hall recombination lifetimes in homoepitaxial GaN p–n junctions

We calculated the conduction band structure of GeNWs by a tight-binding model and obtained the fundamental understanding of electron transport characteristics in [001], [110], [111], and [112] GeNW FETs. The simulation of ballistic electron transport revealed that [110] GeNW FETs on the (001) face achieve high drive current as well as high injection velocity, being the best choice for n-channel FETs.

Orientation and size effects on ballistic electron transport properties in gate-all-around rectangular germanium nanowire FETs

The present tight-binding study of rectangular SiNWs along [001], [110], and [111] revealed that the hole m* of [001] and [110] NWs on the {001} basal face has strong dependence on the width. Because this nature may make the design of devices difficult, these NWs are considered to be unfavorable for p-channel devices. In contrast, rectangular [111] NWs on both (112) and (110) basal faces are favorable for p-channel devices because they have the smallest hole m* and its value is very resistant to the variability of the width.

Jun Suda

Papers

Design guidelines suppressing dynamic punch-through in GaN vertical MOSFETs by considering the Poole-Frenkel effect

Molecular beam epitaxy of GaN on lattice-matched ZrB2 substrates using low-temperature GaN and AlN nucleation layers

Effects of proton irradiation-induced point defects on Shockley–Read–Hall recombination lifetimes in homoepitaxial GaN p–n junctions

Orientation and size effects on ballistic electron transport properties in gate-all-around rectangular germanium nanowire FETs

Tight-binding study of size and geometric effects on hole effective mass of silicon nanowires