GaN Electronics

Abstract

An overview is presented of progress in GaN electronic devices for high-power, high-temperature applications. The wide bandgaps of the nitride materials, their excellent transport properties, and the availability of heterostructures (e.g., GaN/AlGaN) make them ideal candidates for these applications. In the past few years a wide range of devices have been reported, including heterostructure field effect transistors (HFETs), heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), bipolar junction transistors (BJTs), Schottky and p–i–n rectifiers, and metal–oxide–semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). Some of the unexpected features of GaN-based electronics include the ability to use piezoelectrically induced carriers for current transport in heterostructures and the sensitivity of the GaN surface to preferential loss of nitrogen during device processing.