Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors, namely SiC and GaN, have been considered ideal materials for high power microwave devices since they were first studied over 30 years ago. Among all GaN related technologies, p-type doping of GaN, and low resistivity ohmic contacts to p-GaN are the least mature ones. At the same times, virtually all characteristics of electronic semiconductor devices depend on the ohmic contact resistance including: the wall-plug efficiency, heating of the device, reliability, noise figures of merit, ft , fmax , power added efficiency (PAE), and maximum power. Therefore, the development of low resistivity contacts to GaN, and in particular to p-GaN, has an enormous commercial potential, by virtue of the involvement of all major application areas of GaN-based devices such as high-power electronics, wireless communications and photonics. The major technical objective of Phase I is the demonstration of a new class of low-resistance ohmic contacts to GaN based semiconductors that exhibit internal electric fields due to spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization effects. In addition, the novel contact will be integrated in a test device - namely a high voltage rectifier diode based on an AlGaN/GaN p-n junction.Anticipated Benefits/Commercial Applications: New contact technology can find its application in BJTs and HBTs for high power electronics, LEDs and laser diodes for optical storage devices.
