Bradford B. Pate

Reduced Self-Heating in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs Using Nanocrystalline Diamond Heat-Spreading Films

Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) thin films are deposited as a heat-spreading capping layer on AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices. Compared to a control sample, the NCD-capped HEMTs exhibited approximately 20% lower device temperature from 0.5 to 9 W/mm dc power device operation. Temperature measurements were performed by Raman thermography and verified by solving the 2-D heat equation within the device structure. NCD-capped HEMTs exhibited 1) improved carrier density <i>NS</i>, sheet resistance <i>R</i>_SH; 2) stable Hall mobility μ<i>H</i> and threshold voltage <i>VT</i>; and 3) degraded on-state resistance <i>RON</i> , contact resistance <i>RC</i>, transconductance <i>Gm</i>, and breakdown voltage <i>V</i>_BR.

Thermal conduction inhomogeneity of nanocrystalline diamond films by dual-side thermoreflectance

Thin diamond films of thickness near 1 μm can have highly nonuniform thermal conductivities owing to spatially varying disorder associated with nucleation and grain coalescence. Here, we examine the nonuniformity for nanocrystalline chemical vapor deposited diamond films of thickness 0.5, 1.0, and 5.6 μm using picosecond thermoreflectance from both the top and bottom diamond surfaces, enabled by etching a window in the silicon substrate. The extracted local thermal conductivities vary from less than 100 W m−1 K−1 to more than 1300 W m−1 K−1 and suggest that the most defective material is confined to within 1 μm of the growth surface.

Anisotropic and inhomogeneous thermal conduction in suspended thin-film polycrystalline diamond

While there is a great wealth of data for thermal transport in synthetic diamond, there remains much to be learned about the impacts of grain structure and associated defects and impurities within a few microns of the nucleation region in films grown using chemical vapor deposition. Measurements of the inhomogeneous and anisotropic thermal conductivity in films thinner than 10 μm have previously been complicated by the presence of the substrate thermal boundary resistance. Here, we study thermal conduction in suspended films of polycrystalline diamond, with thicknesses ranging between 0.5 and 5.6 μm, using time-domain thermoreflectance. Measurements on both sides of the films facilitate extraction of the thickness-dependent in-plane ( κr) and through-plane ( κz) thermal conductivities in the vicinity of the coalescence and high-quality regions. The columnar grain structure makes the conductivity highly anisotropic, with κz being nearly three to five times as large as κr, a contrast higher than that report...

Thermoelastic damping in micromechanical resonators

We show that the dominant energy loss mechanism in plate modes of a 1.5 μm thick silicon micromechanical resonator is thermoelastic damping. In situ ultra-high vacuum annealing lowers the dissipation of two neighboring resonance modes (460 and 510 kHz) at 120 K to Q−1≤5×10−7. From 120 to 400 K, the Q−1 of these modes increase at different rates, in quantitative agreement with a modification (that accounts for mode shape) of Zener’s theory of thermoelastic damping.

Bunch characteristics of an electron beam generated by a diamond secondary emitter amplifier

Electron bunches for high performance free electron lasers are subject to constraints on charge per bunch and pulse shape. A Diamond secondary emitter used in conjunction with a photocathode and drive laser has potential to enable a high brightness, high peak current photoinjector by increasing the effective quantum efficiency of the photocathode. A theoretical characterization of the bunches so produced has been heretofore absent. Using a combination of Monte Carlo and analytical models, the shape of the bunches, their transit time, and emission time constants are determined and shown to be sensitive to the accelerating field in the diamond flake, incident beam profile, doping, and surface conditions. Methods to allow for extension to regimes of technological interest in terms of diamond thickness, external field, and primary pulse shape are given.

Impact of Intrinsic Stress in Diamond Capping Layers on the Electrical Behavior of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

A finite-element model coupling 2-D electron gas (2-DEG) density, piezoelectric polarization charge QP, and intrinsic stress induced by a nanocrystalline diamond capping layer, was developed for AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors. Assuming the surface potential is unchanged by an additional stress from diamond capping, tensile stress from the diamond cap leads to an additional tensile stress in the heterostructure and, thus an increase in the 2-DEG under the gate. As a result, additional compressive stress near the gate edges would develop and lead to decreased 2-DEG in the regions between the source and drain contacts (SDCs). Increased saturation drain current will be due to the reduced total resistance between SDC. Integration of the 2-DEG density from SDC revealed a redistribution of sheet density with total sheet charge concentration remaining unchanged. The modeling results were compared with the experimental data from Raman spectroscopy and I-V characterization, and good agreements were obtained.

Large-Signal RF Performance of Nanocrystalline Diamond Coated AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors

In this split-wafer study, we have compared the dc, pulsed, small and large signal RF electrical performance of nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) coated AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) to reference devices with silicon nitride passivation only. The NCD-coated HEMTs were observed to outperform reference devices in transconductance, large-signal gain, output power density, and power-added efficiency at 4 GHz. The measured improvements were suspected to be related to reduced dispersion and lower source access resistance afforded by the NCD film.

Nanocrystalline Diamond-Gated AlGaN/GaN HEMT

Boron-doped p+ nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films are implemented as heat spreading gate contacts to AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors. This device demonstrates a reduced ON-resistance, reduced gate leakage, and significantly increased ON-state current density compared with the reference Ni/Au-gated devices from the same wafer. The NCD gate electrode is thermally stable, chemically stable, optically transparent, and places a heat spreading film in direct contact with the gate edge, which is the hottest part of the device.

Note: Laser ablation technique for electrically contacting a buried implant layer in single crystal diamond

The creation of thin, buried, and electrically conducting layers within an otherwise insulating diamond by annealed ion implantation damage is well known. Establishing facile electrical contact to the shallow buried layer has been an unmet challenge. We demonstrate a new method, based on laser micro-machining (laser ablation), to make reliable electrical contact to a buried implant layer in diamond. Comparison is made to focused ion beam milling.

Anisotropic and Nonhomogeneous Thermal Conduction in 1 µm Thick CVD Diamond

We present an experimental study of thermal conduction in 1 μm thick suspended CVD diamond film by time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR), an optical pump-probe technique. Important aspects of signal analysis and measurement sensitivity are discussed, outlining the various thermal metrology challenges posed by this system. We measure the properties of the near-interfacial coalescence region and high-quality growth region by performing experiments on the bottom and top sides of the suspended film, respectively, and find that the small average grain size of the former, and strong columnar anisotropy of the latter region are reflected in the measurements of thermal conductivity. Our TDTR methodology utilizes the information present in both the amplitude and phase response of the system at the modulation harmonic of the pump laser, in order to separate out the effects of the transducer-diamond thermal boundary conductance from the intrinsic diamond conductivity. Additionally, measurements are made across a range of modulation frequencies in order to obtain better estimates of the conductivity anisotropy. For the 1 μm thick film, we estimate an in-plane to through-plane anisotropy ratio of ~0.3, and through-plane conductivities of ~440 W/m-K and ~140 W/m-K for the high quality and coalescence regions, respectively.