Thermal Transport at the AlN-SiC Interface and Grain Boundary of AlN.

Abstract

AlN is deposited on silicon carbide (SiC) for high-power electronics; in these devices, AlN acts as both a buffer layer for the growth of the active device and a thermal conductor. However, the mechanism of thermal transport through the AlN-SiC interfaces and through grain boundaries of AlN has not been clearly analyzed, even though AlN forms grain boundaries during the deposition process. The thermal properties of the AlN-SiC interface and the inversion domain boundaries (IDBs) of AlN were examined by a phonon transport model based on a nonequilibrium Green function formalism and first-principles calculations. The interface and grain boundary models were designed, and the thermal resistances (TRs) and origins of TR were examined. The TRs of the AlN-SiC interface and the IDB of AlN are much higher than the TRs of AlN and SiC of relevant thickness. Elemental intermixing and vacancy formation were modeled. The formation of charge-balanced defect of VAl + 3ON is thermodynamically favorable compared to other defects, indicating that ON induces formation of VAl. The charge-balanced defect combining VAl and ON increases the TRs of both AlN-SiC interfaces and AlN grain boundaries because vacancy defects induce larger changes in mass than all other defects, and TRs are proportional to changes in mass. In addition, VAl defects are increased by excess ON, resulting in a continuous increase in TR, and then, the calculated thermal boundary resistance (TBR) of the AlN-SiC interface with increased density of VAl by excess ON reaches the experimental TBR. Therefore, it is expected that the large increase in TR by the formation of VAl + ON would be suppressed by controlling the low O density during synthesis.