Development of 2DNM Heat Spreaders and GaN HEMT Technology for Advanced Power Electronic Applications

Abstract

Advanced power electronic application normally requires high-speed semiconductor switches in a compact design that are capable to transform electrical energy between the sources and the loads with high efficiency. In electronics, inefficiency is a waste that also translated into unnecessarily high costs and limits the device performance. As the number of connected devices increases in modern applications, more efficient power conversion is necessary especially for advanced power electronic systems. Therefore, in this research, on-chip thermal management is designed to improve the power conversion efficiency of Gallium Nitride (GaN) High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT). Since the inefficiency in the electronic component is always referred to as losses in the form of heat, proper thermal management is needed to improve the device performance. As nanotechnology promise to be the foundation of the next industrial revolution, the research towards nanoenhanced semiconductor devices has aroused widespread attention from researchers, scientists and engineers. In this research, two-dimensional nanomaterials (2DNMs) are used as heat spreaders to reduce the localized hot spot temperature in GaN HEMT for higher device efficiency. The fabrication process flow, process issues, process characterization, material characterization and thermal performance of the nanomaterial heat spreader are the main topics to be discussed in this paper. Based on the experiment the monolayer graphene can improve the thermal resistance by at least 0.5 K/W. This may help to improve the GaN HEMT device efficiency especially when the device is operated under high power density.