Abstract

(AlxGa1−x)2O3 and Ga2O3 are promising wide bandgap semiconductors for application in power electronics and radio frequency devices because of their exceptional electrical transport properties. However, the heat dissipation in these devices will be limited by the ultra-low thermal conductivity of (AlxGa1−x)2O3 and Ga2O3. Previous studies showed that these devices could achieve high power density with double-sided or top-side cooling strategies. Therefore, the thermal transport across metal-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 and metal-Ga2O3 contacts is important, since heat will be conducted through the metal-semiconductor interface as a preferred pathway to extract heat from the devices. In this work, we study the thermal transport across Al-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 and Al-Ga2O3 interfaces with an (010) orientation for the semiconductors. We have applied thermal and material characterization (time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) together with theoretical approaches to understand the interfacial thermal transport at Al-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 and AlGa2O3 contacts. It is found that for different growth methods, the highest TBC at Al-Ga2O3 interface occurs with molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) deposition of the Al on Ga2O3. However, the experimentally measured TBC at E-beam evaporated Al interfaces is much lower than that at the MBE grown Al interfaces. The measured values are also much lower than theoretical predictions, and it is related to the interfacial chemical reactions that occur at the interfaces. The effect of Al composition on interfacial thermal transport at Al/(AlxGa1−x)2O3 interface is also studied. It is found that the TBC at the E-beam evaporated Al/(AlxGa1−x)2O3 interface is very close to that of the E-beam evaporated Al-Ga2O3 interface at different temperatures in the ternary alloy studied.

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