Surfactant Enhanced Growth of High Quality Gallium Nitride (GaN) on Silicon for RF Power Amplifiers

The wide bandgap material GaN is ideally suited for high power and high temperature electronics. Potential applications include high power devices such as amplifiers, mobile digital, point-to-point and satellite communications, wireless area networking(WAN), high temperature sensor and electronics for combustion control, and electronic actuators. An investigation into the feasibility of the growth of high quality GaN on surfactant treated silicon substrates is proposed. Unlike substrates currently usedfor the fabrication of GaN-based devices, large diameter silicon substrates are readily available. Since device throughput is proportional to the square of the wafer diameter this approach could significantly lower production costs. Such a silicon-basedwafer platform could also provide the advanced architecture for integration of GaN-based devices into silicon circuits. Larger substrates will produce significantly less expensive devices such as HEMT and amplifiers for a variety of applications includingradar systems and consumer electronics.