XHEMTs on Ultrawide Bandgap Single-Crystal AlN Substrates
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866908414747082752 |
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| author | Kim, Eungkyun Chen, Yu-Hsin Pieczulewski, Naomi Encomendero, Jimy Muller, David Anthony Jena, Debdeep Xing, Huili Grace |
| author_facet | Kim, Eungkyun Chen, Yu-Hsin Pieczulewski, Naomi Encomendero, Jimy Muller, David Anthony Jena, Debdeep Xing, Huili Grace |
| contents | AlN has the largest bandgap in the wurtzite III-nitride semiconductor family, making it an ideal barrier for a thin GaN channel to achieve strong carrier confinement in field-effect transistors, analogous to silicon-on-insulator technology. Unlike SiO$_2$/Si/SiO$_2$, AlN/GaN/AlN can be grown fully epitaxially, enabling high carrier mobilities suitable for high-frequency applications. However, developing these heterostructures and related devices has been hindered by challenges in strain management, polarization effects, defect control and charge trapping. Here, the AlN single-crystal high electron mobility transistor (XHEMT) is introduced, a new nitride transistor technology designed to address these issues. The XHEMT structure features a pseudomorphic GaN channel sandwiched between AlN layers, grown on single-crystal AlN substrates. First-generation XHEMTs demonstrate RF performance on par with the state-of-the-art GaN HEMTs, achieving 5.92 W/mm output power and 65% peak power-added efficiency at 10 GHz under 17 V drain bias. These devices overcome several limitations present in conventional GaN HEMTs, which are grown on lattice-mismatched foreign substrates that introduce undesirable dislocations and exacerbated thermal resistance. With the recent availability of 100-mm AlN substrates and AlN's high thermal conductivity (340 W/m$\cdot$K), XHEMTs show strong potential for next-generation RF electronics. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_16670 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | XHEMTs on Ultrawide Bandgap Single-Crystal AlN Substrates Kim, Eungkyun Chen, Yu-Hsin Pieczulewski, Naomi Encomendero, Jimy Muller, David Anthony Jena, Debdeep Xing, Huili Grace Materials Science Applied Physics AlN has the largest bandgap in the wurtzite III-nitride semiconductor family, making it an ideal barrier for a thin GaN channel to achieve strong carrier confinement in field-effect transistors, analogous to silicon-on-insulator technology. Unlike SiO$_2$/Si/SiO$_2$, AlN/GaN/AlN can be grown fully epitaxially, enabling high carrier mobilities suitable for high-frequency applications. However, developing these heterostructures and related devices has been hindered by challenges in strain management, polarization effects, defect control and charge trapping. Here, the AlN single-crystal high electron mobility transistor (XHEMT) is introduced, a new nitride transistor technology designed to address these issues. The XHEMT structure features a pseudomorphic GaN channel sandwiched between AlN layers, grown on single-crystal AlN substrates. First-generation XHEMTs demonstrate RF performance on par with the state-of-the-art GaN HEMTs, achieving 5.92 W/mm output power and 65% peak power-added efficiency at 10 GHz under 17 V drain bias. These devices overcome several limitations present in conventional GaN HEMTs, which are grown on lattice-mismatched foreign substrates that introduce undesirable dislocations and exacerbated thermal resistance. With the recent availability of 100-mm AlN substrates and AlN's high thermal conductivity (340 W/m$\cdot$K), XHEMTs show strong potential for next-generation RF electronics. |
| title | XHEMTs on Ultrawide Bandgap Single-Crystal AlN Substrates |
| topic | Materials Science Applied Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.16670 |