ABSTRACT
III-Nitride (III-N) materials combine Column-III elements with nitrogen to provide a new device platform for microelectronic and optoelectronic applications to overcome several fundamental physics limitations for devices using conventional low-bandgap semiconductors. This chapter focuses on two types of III-N transistor formalities: III-N high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). Compared to typical cubic semiconductors, III-N crystalline is typically in the form of the Wurtzite structure. The commonly used substrate materials for gallium nitride (GaN) HEMTs are either silicon carbide, GaN, or sapphire. GaN-on-silicon platforms also have been extensively studied to take advantages of silicon’s high thermal conductivity and the potential for scale of economy using larger wafer sizes. Wide-bandgap III-N electronic devices find their niche in high-temperature microelectronic systems. With low-resistive loss and high-voltage operation capabilities, they are especially suitable for power amplifications and switching with wide range of operable temperatures. III-N HEMTs have been proven feasible for compact microwave power amplifiers.
