Title:  Development and Characterization of III-Nitride Bipolar Devices

Committee:

Dr. Shyh-Chiang Shen, ECE, Chair , Advisor

Dr. Russel Dupuis, ECE

Dr. Douglas Yoder, ECE

Dr. Muhannad Bakir, ECE

Dr. Samuel Graham, ME

Abstract: 

III-nitride (III-N) materials have been widely used in optical devices such as blue light-emitting diodes today. On the other hand, III-N power electronics are also promising for the next-generation high-voltage and high-power applications because of the high breakdown voltage, high power handling capability, and high-temperature operation capability. The research involves the current development of III-N bipolar devices at Georgia Tech. The device design, fabrication process development, and device characterization are focused on different III-N bipolar devices: (1) GaN homojunction p-i-n rectifiers achieve a breakdown voltage >800 V with an extremely low specific on-resistance of 0.28 mΩ-cm2. The temperature-dependent characteristics of GaN p-i-n rectifiers will also be discussed. (2) The InGaN/GaN avalanche phototransistors (APTs) developed at GT demonstrate high responsivity (>300 A/W) and high ultraviolet-to-visible-band rejection ratio (>8×103) under UV light illumination. (3) The development of UV light emitters is also presented in the research works, including optically pumped DUV laser, electrically pumped DUV light emitting diodes (LEDs) and UV resonant-cavity LEDs.