Analysis of Lateral Thermal Coupling for GaN MMIC Technologies

TLDR: In this paper, the lateral heat propagation in an AlGaN/GaN heterostructure grown on a silicon carbide substrate was investigated using a temperature sensor that utilizes the temperature-dependent $I$ − $V$ characteristic of a semiconductor resistor, making it suitable for integration in GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit technologies.

Abstract: This paper presents a study of the lateral heat propagation in an aluminum gallium nitride/gallium nitride (AlGaN/GaN) heterostructure grown on a silicon carbide substrate The study is enabled by the design of a temperature sensor that utilizes the temperature-dependent $I$ – $V$ characteristic of a semiconductor resistor, making it suitable for integration in GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit technologies Using the sensor, we are able to characterize the thermal transient response and extract lateral thermal time constants from the measurements Time constants in the range from 25 $\mu \text{s}$ to 12 ms are identified Furthermore, the heat propagation properties are characterized for heat source-to-sensor distances of 86– $484~\mu \text{m}$ , resulting in delay times from 35 to $111~\mu \text{s}$ It is shown that both the time constants and propagation delay increase with temperature An empirical model of the sensor current versus temperature and voltage is proposed and used to predict the junction temperature of the sensor The study provides knowledge for heat management design and proposes an integrated temperature measurement solution for future highly integrated GaN applications