Quantum-Well Si/SiC Self-Cooling for Thermal Management of High Heat Flux GaN HEMT Semiconductor Devices

Wide bandgap semiconductor technology is expected to have a dramatic impact on radar and communications systems. To take full advantage of the power capabilities and small device sizes of wide bandgap semiconductors, new and novel thermal management solutions, especially for high power density, monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) are in high demand. In this paper, a quantum-well Si/SiC self-cooling concept for hot spot thermal management at the multi-fingered GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMTs) in the GaN-on-SiC package is proposed and investigated using a three dimensional (3-D) thermal-electric coupling simulation. The impact of electric current, cooler size, Si/SiC substrate thickness, Si/SiC thermal conductivity, and interfacial parasitic effect on the hot spot cooling is examined and discussed. The preliminary modeling results strongly suggest that self-cooling phenomenon inherent in the quantum-well Si/SiC substrate can be used to remove local high heat flux hot spot on the semiconductor devices.