Description:
Reference #: 01434
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for new approaches for fabricating N-Polar AlxGa1-xN Templates for Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices.
Background:
A high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) is a transistor that uses an electric field to control the flow of current, which incorporates a junction between two materials with different band gaps where electron states cannot exist. HEMTs have high power performance and can operate at higher frequencies up to millimeter wave, which is attractive for power electronics such as cell phones, TV receivers, and voltage converters.
Invention Description:
This invention makes it much easier to make proper contacts. Reduction of contact resistance leads to improved electrical and thermal performance. The Ga-polar III-N devices have undergone significant performance improvement and are now being commercialized by several large US based power electronics companies such as Transphorm, EPC, and Texas Instruments. The object of this invention is to provide AIN templates, with excellent thermal conductivity. These power transistors will offer better performance at a more reasonable cost than current options.
Potential Applications:
HEMT’s higher frequencies are used in cell phones, TV receivers, and voltage converters.
Advantages and Benefits:
Currently only bulk N-polar AlN substrates are available, but are very expensive. A sapphire based N-polar AlN template that is thick for good thermal conductivity is an excellent low-cost competitive product. N-polar templates of AlN will lead to N-polar HEMTs where the contact resistivity issue can be mitigated.