Novel growth and processing techniques for production of stable, reliable, high-performance AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

The goal of this proposal is to develop epitaxial growth technology and device processing technology for GaN-based HEMTs with stable and reproducible operations. TDI recently demonstrated the first-ever nitride HEMT grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy(HVPE). Due to intrinsic advantages of HVPE technology, these results open an opportunity to develop nitride high-power high-frequency devices with stable and reliable operations. We also propose to apply novel processing technology to improve nitrideHEMT operations. Combining these growth and processing technologies provides an innovate approach for fabrication of reliable devices for stable operation at 8-12 GHz. For the DoD and entire US military, commercialization of nitride based HEMTs grown byHVPE with novel passivation films will allow development of stable and reliable components designed for X-band operation based on high-performance nitride HEMT devices with the reliability of current GaAs technology. High performance nitride HEMT deviceswill find a host of applications in civilian electronics for wireless communications.