GaN on Si: Epitaxy and Devices

The history of gallium nitride (GaN) research fights against GaN crystal growth. This chapter describes entire technology related to GaN power devices; GaN epitaxial growth, technical approaches of GaN lateral devices, device semiconductor processing, practical power applications, and device integrations utilizing advantages of GaN lateral devices. The GaN epitaxial layers on Si consist of the following parts: nucleation layer, buffer layer, and active layer. The chapter summarizes GaN epitaxy on Si substrate including impurity doping, choice of substrates, detailed epitaxial structures to initiate epitaxial growth, manage mechanical stress, and generate two-dimensional electron gas for GaN lateral power devices. GaN HFETs enable to make power conversion systems such as inverters and power supplies higher efficient and smaller size taking advantage of the superior device characteristics. GaN-based power devices are very promising devices for power electronics applications due to the superior device performance surpassing conventional Si-based power devices.