E/D-Mode GaN Inverter on a 150-mm Si Wafer Based on p-GaN Gate E-Mode HEMT Technology

AlGaN/GaN E/D-mode GaN inverters are successfully fabricated on a 150-mm Si wafer. P-GaN gate technology is applied to be compatible with the commercial E-mode GaN power device technology platform and a systematic study of E/D-mode GaN inverters has been conducted with detail. The key electrical characters have been analyzed from room temperature (RT) to 200 °C. Small variations of the inverters are observed at different temperatures. The logic swing voltage of 2.91 V and 2.89 V are observed at RT and 200 °C at a supply voltage of 3 V. Correspondingly, low/high input noise margins of 0.78 V/1.67 V and 0.68 V/1.72 V are observed at RT and 200 °C. The inverters also demonstrate small rising edge time of the output signal. The results show great potential for GaN smart power integrated circuit (IC) application.

A review of passive methods in microchannel heat sink application through advanced geometric structure and nanofluids: Current advancements and challenges

Microchannel heat sink (MCHS) is an advanced cooling technique to fulfil the cooling demand for electronic devices installed with high-power integrated circuit packages (microchips). Various microchannel designs have been innovated to improve the heat transfer performance in an MCHS. Specifically, the utilisation of nanotechnology in the form of nanofluid in an MCHS attracted the attention of researchers because of considerable enhancement of thermal conductivity in nanofluid even at a low nanoparticle concentration. However, a high-pressure drop was the main limitation as it controls the MCHS performance resulted from heat transfer augmentation. Therefore, this study aimed to critically summarise the challenges and limitations of both single and hybrid passive methods of MCHS. Furthermore, the performance of nanofluid as a coolant in the MCHS as affected by the type and concentration of nanoparticle and the type of base fluid was reviewed systematically. The review indicated that the hybrid MCHS provides a better cooling performance than MCHS with the single passive method as the former results in a higher heat transfer rate with minimal pressure drop penalty. Besides that, further heat transfer performance can be enhanced by dispersing aluminium dioxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles with a concentration of less than 2.0% (v/v) in the water-based coolant.

Design and Investigation of a Dual Material Gate Arsenic Alloy Heterostructure Junctionless TFET with a Lightly Doped Source

This paper designs and investigates a novel structure of dual material gate-engineered heterostructure junctionless tunnel field-effect transistor (DMGE-HJLTFET) with a lightly doped source. Similar to the conventional HJLTFET, the proposed structure still adopts an InAs/GaAs0.1Sb0.9 heterojunction at source and channel interface and employs a polarization electric field at the arsenic heterojunction induced by the lattice mismatch in the InAs and GaAs0.1Sb0.9 zinc blende crystal to improve band to band tunneling (BTBT) current. However, the gate electrode is divided into three parts in DMGE-HJLTFET namely the auxiliary gate (M1), control gate (M2) and tunnel gate (M3) with workfunctions ΦM1, ΦM2 and ΦM3, where ΦM1 = ΦM3 < ΦM2, which not only improves ON-state current but also decreases the OFF-state current. In addition, a lightly doped source is used to further decrease the OFF-state current of this device. Simulation results indicate that DMGE-HJLTFET provides superior metrics in terms of logic and analog/radio frequency (RF) performance as compared with conventional HJLTFET, the maximum ON-state current and transconductance of the DMGE-HJLTFET increases up to 5.46 × 10−4 A/μm and 1.51 × 10−3 S/μm at 1.0 V drain-to-source voltage (Vds). Moreover, average subthreshold swing (SSave) of DMGE-HJLTFET is as low as 15.4 mV/Dec at low drain voltages. Also, DMGE-HJLTFET could achieve a maximum cut-off frequency (fT) of 423 GHz at 0.92 V gate-to-source voltage (Vgs) and a maximum gain bandwidth (GBW) of 82 GHz at Vgs = 0.88 V, respectively. Therefore, it has great potential in future ultra-low power integrated circuit applications.