Plenary Talks
GaN-on-Si Technology, A New Approach for Advanced Devices
Dr. Tomás Palacios
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nitride semiconductors are quickly transforming our world by enabling new solid-state lighting, highly efficient amplifiers for wireless communications, and a large array of new high performance devices. Of the various substrates available to grow these semiconductors, the Si substrate has traditionally been considered a low-cost, lower-performance option. In this talk, I will show that the use of a Si substrate, far from hindering the performance of nitride semiconductors, is a powerful tool that gives unprecedented flexibility for the fabrication of advanced new nitride-based devices.
Three different examples will be discussed. First, the wafer bonding of a GaN-on-Si sample to a Si (100) wafer has been used to demonstrate the first on-wafer integration of GaN electronics and Si (100) CMOS circuits. This integration allows the combination of the high complexity and flexibility of Si circuits with the vast array of new devices enabled by GaN: transistors, LEDs, energy harvesting devices, and filters. A second example involves the fabrication of N-face GaN transistors by removing the Si substrate of a Ga-face-grown sample. These new devices offer new opportunities for improved heat dissipation and high frequency electronics. Finally, the large wafer diameters available for GaN-on-Si samples provide an important competitive advantage for the development of GaN-based high performance power electronics. These devices, with a $10 billion dollar prospective market, could be key to allow energy savings equivalent to 10% of the global electricity consumption.