Shahab Shervin

Strain-effect transistors: Theoretical study on the effects of external strain on III-nitride high-electron-mobility transistors on flexible substrates

This paper presents strain-effect transistors (SETs) based on flexible III-nitride high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) through theoretical calculations. We show that the electronic band structures of InAlGaN/GaN thin-film heterostructures on flexible substrates can be modified by external bending with a high degree of freedom using polarization properties of the polar semiconductor materials. Transfer characteristics of the HEMT devices, including threshold voltage and transconductance, are controlled by varied external strain. Equilibrium 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is enhanced with applied tensile strain by bending the flexible structure with the concave-side down (bend-down condition). 2DEG density is reduced and eventually depleted with increasing compressive strain in bend-up conditions. The operation mode of different HEMT structures changes from depletion- to enchantment-mode or vice versa depending on the type and magnitude of external strain. The results suggest that the operation mo...

Thin-Film-Flip-Chip LEDs Grown on Si Substrate Using Wafer-Level Chip-Scale Package

Demonstrated are visible GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on economical large-area Si substrates using an advanced device and packaging architecture to improve optical output power, while reducing manufacturing costs. The process employs thin-film-flip-chip devices and wafer-level chip-scale packages and uses through-Si-via substrate and anisotropic conductive film for bonding. The improved curvature control region is applied in the epitaxial growth of the LED structure on a Si substrate to achieve flat wafers for epitaxial structures at room temperature, which is critical for wafer-level bonding. External quantum efficiency and light-output power at 350 mA increase by ~12% compared with those of conventional flip-chip LEDs grown on a sapphire substrate. The devices also show a reverse-bias leakage current failure rate of <;10%.

Visible Flip-Chip Light-Emitting Diodes on Flexible Ceramic Substrate With Improved Thermal Management

We demonstrate flip-chip light-emitting diodes (FC-LEDs) on a flexible yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) substrate and compare them with FC-LEDs on a polymeric substrate. Degradation of luminescence intensity and red-shift of peak wavelength are not observed for the LED on the flexible YSZ, unlike one on the polyimide substrate, due to improved capability to remove the generated heat from the chip to the substrate. Thermal distribution measurements and finite-element simulations show improved thermal management by the flexible ceramic as compared with previously developed flexible LEDs on polymeric substrates. The results present an improved solution to high power operation of flexible LEDs.

High-Output Lead-Free Flexible Piezoelectric Generator Using Single-Crystalline GaN Thin Film

Piezoelectric generators (PEGs) are a promising power source for future self-powered electronics by converting ubiquitous ambient mechanical energy into electricity. However, most of the high-output PEGs are made from lead zirconate titanate, in which the hazardous lead could be a potential risk to both humans and environment, limiting their real applications. III-Nitride (III-N) can be a potential candidate to make stable, safe, and efficient PEGs due to its high chemical stability and piezoelectricity. Also, PEGs are preferred to be flexible rather than rigid, to better harvest the low-magnitude mechanical energy. Herein, a high-output, lead-free, and flexible PEG (F-PEG) is made from GaN thin film by transferring a single-crystalline epitaxial layer from silicon substrate to a flexible substrate. The output voltage, current density, and power density can reach 28 V, 1 μA·cm-2, and 6 μW·cm-2, respectively, by bending the F-PEG. The generated electric power by human finger bending is high enough to light commercial visible light-emitting diodes and charge commercial capacitors. The output performance is maintained higher than 95% of its original value after 10 000-cycle test. This highly stable, high-output, and lead-free GaN thin-film F-PEG has the great potential for future self-powered electronic devices and systems.

Electrical and optical properties of sub-10 nm nickel silicide films for silicon solar cells

Highly conductive and transparent films of ultra-thin p-type nickel silicide films have been prepared by RF magnetron sputtering of nickel on silicon substrates followed by rapid thermal annealing in an inert environment in the temperature range 400–600 °C. The films are uniform throughout the wafer with thicknesses in the range of 3–6 nm. The electrical and optical properties are presented for nickel silicide films with varying thickness. The Drude–Lorentz model and Fresnel equations were used to calculate the dielectric properties, sheet resistance, absorption and transmission of the films. These ultrathin nickel silicide films have excellent optoelectronic properties for p-type contacts with optical transparencies up to 80% and sheet resistance as low as ~0.15 µΩ cm. Furthermore, it was shown that the use of a simple anti-reflection (AR) coating can recover most of the reflected light approaching the values of a standard Si solar cell with the same AR coating. Overall, the combination of ultra-low thickness, high transmittance, low sheet resistance and ability to recover the reflected light by utilizing standard AR coating makes them ideal for utilization in silicon based photovoltaic technologies as a p-type transparent conductor.

High-power flexible AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors with suppression of negative differential conductance

We investigate thermo-electronic behaviors of flexible AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFETs) for high-power operation of the devices using Raman thermometry, infrared imaging, and current-voltage characteristics. A large negative differential conductance observed in HFETs on polymeric flexible substrates is confirmed to originate from the decreasing mobility of the two-dimensional electron gas channel caused by the self-heating effect. We develop high-power transistors by suppressing the negative differential conductance in the flexible HFETs using chemical lift-off and modified Ti/Au/In metal bonding processes with copper (Cu) tapes for high thermal conductivity and low thermal interfacial resistance in the flexible hybrid structures. Among different flexible HFETs, the ID of the HFETs on Cu with Ni/Au/In structures decreases only by 11.3% with increasing drain bias from the peak current to the current at VDS = 20 V, which is close to that of the HFETs on Si (9.6%), solving the probl...

Using Mosaicity to Tune Thermal Transport in Polycrystalline Aluminum Nitride Thin Films

The effect of controlling the c-axis alignment (mosaicity) to the cross-plane thermal transport in textured polycrystalline aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films is experimentally and theoretically investigated. We show that by controlling the sputtering conditions we are able to deposit AlN thin films with varying c-axis grain tilt (mosaicity) from 10° to 0°. Microstructural characterization shows that the films are nearly identical in thickness and grain size, and the difference in mosaicity alters the grain interface quality. This has a significant effect to thermal transport where a thermal conductivity of 4.22 vs 8.09 W/mK are measured for samples with tilt angles of 10° versus 0° respectively. The modified Callaway model was used to fit the theoretical curves to the experimental results using various phonon scattering mechanisms at the grain interface. It was found that using a non-gray model gives an overview of the phonon scattering at the grain boundaries, whereas treating the grain boundary as an array of dislocation lines with varying angle relative to the heat flow, best describes the mechanism of the thermal transport. Lastly, our results show that controlling the quality of the grain interface provides a tuning knob to control thermal transport in polycrystalline materials.

Atomic-Layer Deposition of Single-Crystalline BeO Epitaxially Grown on GaN Substrates

We have grown a single-crystal beryllium oxide (BeO) thin film on a gallium nitride (GaN) substrate by atomic-layer deposition (ALD) for the first time. BeO has a higher thermal conductivity, bandgap energy, and dielectric constant than SiO2. As an electrical insulator, diamond is the only material on earth whose thermal conductivity exceeds that of BeO. Despite these advantages, there is no chemical-vapor-deposition technique for BeO-thin-film deposition, and thus, it is not used in nanoscale-semiconductor-device processing. In this study, the BeO thin films grown on a GaN substrate with a single crystal showed excellent interface and thermal stability. Transmission electron microscopy showed clear diffraction patterns, and the Raman shifts associated with soft phonon modes verified the high thermal conductivity. The X-ray scan confirmed the out-of-plane single-crystal growth direction and the in-plane, 6-fold, symmetrical wurtzite structure. Single-crystalline BeO was grown on GaN despite the large lattice mismatch, which suggested a model that accommodated the strain of hexagonal-on-hexagonal epitaxy with 5/6 and 6/7 domain matching. BeO has a good dielectric constant and good thermal conductivity, bandgap energy, and single-crystal characteristics, so it is suitable for the gate dielectric of power semiconductor devices. The capacitance-voltage (C-V) results of BeO on a GaN-metal-oxide semiconductor exhibited low frequency dispersion, hysteresis, and interface-defect density.

III-V thin-film photovoltaic solar cells based on single-crystal-like GaAs grown on flexible metal tapes

This paper describes the demonstration of the flexible single-junction III-V solar cells based on high-quality epitaxial GaAs thin films on a low-cost flexible metal substrate. The single-crystal-like semiconductor material structure is fabricated to photovoltaic devices with front illumination geometry. We fabricate a proof-of-concept epitaxial GaAs thin film solar cell with an open-circuit voltage of 0.3 V and short-circuit current of 6 mA/cm2, resulting in conversion efficiency of ~1% in AM1.5G condition. Relatively low efficiency can be further increased by material crystalline quality improvement and device optimization. This development has the potential to open a new avenue for next-generation low-cost and high efficiency flexible PV devices.