Robert Kaplar

Room-temperature direct current operation of 290 nm light-emitting diodes with milliwatt power levels

Ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy using AlN nucleation layers and thick n-type Al0.48Ga0.52N current spreading layers. The active region is composed of three Al0.36Ga0.64N quantum wells with Al0.48Ga0.52N barriers for emission at 290 nm. Devices were designed as bottom emitters and flip-chip bonded to thermally conductive submounts using an interdigitated contact geometry. The ratio of quantum well emission to 330 nm sub-band gap emission is as high as 125:1 for these LEDs. Output power as high as 1.34 mW at 300 mA under direct current operation has been demonstrated with a forward voltage of 9.4 V. A peak external quantum efficiency of 0.18% has been measured at an operating current of 55 mA.

Slow Detrapping Transients due to Gate and Drain Bias Stress in High Breakdown Voltage AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

Charge trapping and slow (from 10 s to >; 1000 s) detrapping in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) designed for high breakdown voltages ( >; 1500 V) is studied through a combination of electrical, thermal, and optical methods to identify the impact of Al molefraction and passivation on trapping. Trapping due to 5-10 V drain bias stress in the on-state (Vgs = 0) is found to have significantly slower recovery, compared with trapping in the off-state (Vgs <; Vth, Vds = 0). Two different trapping components, i.e., TG1 (Ea = 0.6 eV) and TG2 (with negligible temperature dependence), in AlGaN dominate under gate bias stress in the off-state. Al0.15Ga0.85N shows much more vulnerability to trapping under gate stress in the absence of passivation than does AlGaN with a higher Al mole fraction. Under large drain bias, trapping is dominated by a much deeper trap TD. Detrapping under monochromatic light shows TD to have Ea 1.65 eV. Carbon doping in the buffer is shown to introduce threshold voltage shifts, unlike any of the other traps.

An AlN/Al0.85Ga0.15N high electron mobility transistor

An AlN barrier high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) based on the AlN/Al0.85Ga0.15N heterostructure was grown, fabricated, and electrically characterized, thereby extending the range of Al composition and bandgap for AlGaN channel HEMTs. An etch and regrowth procedure was implemented for source and drain contact formation. A breakdown voltage of 810 V was achieved without a gate insulator or field plate. Excellent gate leakage characteristics enabled a high Ion/Ioff current ratio greater than 107 and an excellent subthreshold slope of 75 mV/decade. A large Schottky barrier height of 1.74 eV contributed to these results. The room temperature voltage-dependent 3-terminal off-state drain current was adequately modeled with Frenkel-Poole emission.

Electroreflectance studies of Stark shifts and polarization-induced electric fields in InGaN/GaN single quantum wells

To observe the effects of polarization fields and screening, we have performed contacted electroreflectance (CER) measurements on In0.07Ga0.93N/GaN single quantum well light emitting diodes for different reverse bias voltages. Room-temperature CER spectra exhibited three features which are at lower energy than the GaN band gap and are associated with the quantum well. The position of the lowest-energy experimental peak, attributed to the ground-state quantum well transition, exhibited a limited Stark shift except at large reverse bias when a redshift in the peak energy was observed. Realistic band models of the quantum well samples were constructed using self-consistent Schrodinger–Poisson solutions, taking polarization and screening effects in the quantum well fully into account. The model predicts an initial blueshift in transition energy as reverse bias voltage is increased, due to the cancellation of the polarization electric field by the depletion region field and the associated shift due to the quan...

Vertical GaN Power Diodes With a Bilayer Edge Termination

Vertical GaN power diodes with a bilayer edge termination (ET) are demonstrated. The GaN p-n junction is formed on a low threading dislocation defect density (104 - 105 cm-2) GaN substrate, and has a 15-μm-thick n-type drift layer with a free carrier concentration of 5 × 1015 cm-3. The ET structure is formed by N implantation into the p+-GaN epilayer just outside the p-type contact to create compensating defects. The implant defect profile may be approximated by a bilayer structure consisting of a fully compensated layer near the surface, followed by a 90% compensated (p) layer near the n-type drift region. These devices exhibit avalanche breakdown as high as 2.6 kV at room temperature. Simulations show that the ET created by implantation is an effective way to laterally distribute the electric field over a large area. This increases the voltage at which impact ionization occurs and leads to the observed higher breakdown voltages.

On dielectric breakdown in silicon-rich silicon nitride thin films

Observations of dielectric breakdown in Si-rich silicon nitride indicate that it is initiated by threshold field trap ionization. The films exhibit the charge transport mechanism of Poole–Frenkel emission with a compositionally dependent ionization potential ranging from 0.58 to 1.22 eV. Similar to silicon oxynitride, the barrier lowering energy at the point of dielectric breakdown is correlated with within ∼2kT of the ionization potential, thus revealing a dual role for bulk traps in the film: regulating charge transport and retarding hot electron generation. Additionally, a semiempirical expression is developed that accurately predicts the compositional dependence of the breakdown field.

Extraction of trapped charge in 4H-SiC metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors from subthreshold characteristics

A technique for characterizing trapped charge in silicon carbide (SiC) metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) based only on the subthreshold I-V characteristics and its degradation under bias temperature stress is described. The method utilizes the large departure of the subthreshold slope from a constant value, due to large and exponentially rising DIT (density of interface traps) near band edges for SiC/SiO2 interface. Elevated bias-temperature stress experiments demonstrate the feasibility of separating ΔNIT (increase in interface trapped charge) from slow trapping components like ΔNOT (increase in oxide trapped charge) with minimal error due to extrapolation of subthreshold current to midgap potentials. A slow trap, dissimilar to either interface or oxide states close to the interface, dominates degradation at elevated temperature.

Role of barrier structure in current collapse of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors

Simultaneous measurements of surface potential by Kelvin force microscopy and drain current detrapping transients in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors are performed on devices with two different epitaxial structures to understand if the trapped charges are predominantly in the AlGaN bulk, at the AlGaN surface, or in the GaN buffer. The results show that the predominant location of charge trapping is affected more strongly by the design of the device and the operating voltages than by surface passivation or buffer defects. The experiments also show that the dominant component of current collapse in devices with thick AlGaN barrier layers comes from AlGaN traps.

Optical and electrical step-recovery study of minority-carrier transport in an InGaN∕GaN quantum-well light-emitting diode grown on sapphire

Forward-to-reverse bias step-recovery experiments were performed on an InGaN∕GaN single-quantum-well light-emitting diode grown on sapphire. With the quantum well sampling the minority-carrier hole density at a single position, the optical emission displayed a two-stage decay. Using a solution to the diffusion equation to self-consistently describe both the optical and electrical recovery data, we estimated values for the hole lifetime (758±44ns), diffusion length (588±45nm), and mobility (0.18±0.02cm2∕Vs) in GaN grown on sapphire. This low value of the minority-carrier mobility may reflect trap-modulated transport, and the lifetime is suggestive of slow capture and emission processes occurring through deep levels.

PV inverter performance and reliability: What is the role of the IGBT?

The inverter is still considered the weakest link in modern photovoltaic systems. Inverter failure can be classified into three major categories: manufacturing and quality control problems, inadequate design, and electrical component failure. It is often difficult to deconvolve the latter two of these, as electrical components can fail due to inadequate design or as a result of intrinsic defects. The aim of the current work is to utilize the extensive background in both inverter performance testing and component reliability found at Sandia National Laboratories to assess the role of component failures in PV performance and reliability. Although there is no consensus on the least reliable component in a modern inverter system, the IGBT is often blamed for failures and hence this was the first component we studied. A commercially available 600V, 60A, silicon IGBT found in common residential inverters was evaluated under normal and extreme operating conditions with DC and pulsed biasing schemes. Although most of the sample devices were robust even under extreme conditions, a few of the samples failed during operation well within the manufacturer-specified limits. Additionally, we have begun in situ monitoring of IGBTs as well as other components within an operating 700 W, single-phase inverter. The in situ testing will guide future device-level work since it allows us to understand the conditions that are experienced by inverter components in a realistic operating environment.