Effect of GaN-on-diamond integration technology on its thermal properties

Abstract

Two different integration technologies of GaN-on-diamond are explored, direct growth of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) on GaN (sample A) and deposition of GaN on PCD (sample B). The reversed evolution of PCD grain structure is assumed for each technology, resulting in an increasing/decreasing tendency of thermal conductivity with growth thickness. Simulation of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors on PCD substrate with capped diamond is made considering anisotropic and inhomogeneous thermal conductivities of GaN and PCD, different combinations of thermal boundary resistance (TBR) values at the top diamond/GaN and bottom GaN/PCD substrate are investigated. The results show that the effect of top TBR is limited and increasing the bottom TBR from 6.5 to 100 m2K GW−1 results in a temperature rise of 80.8 °C for sample A and 85.3 °C for sample B at power dissipation of 10 W mm−1. Enlarging the thickness of capped diamond helps to reduce the junction temperature, which is more effective at small top TBR under constant bottom TBR and at large bottom TBR with fixed top TBR. In addition, increasing gate pitch is a promising solution to reduce junction temperature and a weak dependence of junction temperature on gate width is revealed.