Gallium Nitride, also referred to as GaN is a binary band gap semiconductor used in light-emitting diodes; the semiconductors have been in use since 1990. GaN is a hard compound that is said to have Wurtzite crystal structure. GaN has a wide band gap of 3.4 eV that accords it the most important properties to be used in an optoelectronic high frequency and high power conductors (Akasaki and Amano 9001). The semiconductors are mostly used to produce the violet color in the laser diodes used in nonlinear optical frequency amplifications. This paper considers the doping characteristic of the device and the advantages of using GaN over other semiconductors.
Device structure including typical doping characteristics of the semiconductor layers
Every device that uses GaN as a semiconductor needs to have a specific structure that maximizes use of band gap energies. The design of the device is done in a form that provides for diffusion in the emitter, is a quassi-neutral base with the doping densities in the emitter and the base. Using the first order calculations, electron mobility in the base of 100 cm2/V-s with a minority carrier life time in the base of 10 ns always shows that the current gain is limited by a base limitation of 128 (Akasaki and Amano 9001). In addition, efficiency of the device is calculated at 0.9997 confidence interval so as to avoid the devices effects of hole injection into the emitter. Having a high energy difference causes p-SiC to be highly doped and decreases the base resistance and the sensitivity to the early effects that does not affect the efficiency of the emitters. When GaN semiconductors are doped with p-SiC, it causes a higher advantage on the device than when GaN is used alone; p-SiC had a longer lifetime to conduct electricity.
Material characteristics of GaN
GaN is a very hard material that has a high heat capacity and thermal conductivity. This is coupled with having a wide band gap semiconductor that makes it most applicable in devices that are used in amplification of microwave energy (Terao et al. 195). To prevent cracking of silicon carbide or sapphire, GaN is used in a hundred percent pure state. It prevents cracking but the lattice constants who a certain degree of inconsistency. In addition to its characteristics, it can be doped with silicon or oxygen to form an n-type semiconductor; it can also be doped with magnesium to form a p-type semiconductor. The doping compound changes the process of growing GaN crystals, which introduces tensile stresses making them brittle. To obtain GaN’s high quality crystals, low temperature deposited buffer layers are used. Due to the high voltage breakdown resulting from the high electron mobility and the saturation velocity, it is the most effective tool to be used in amplification of microwaves (Terao et al. 195). It is mostly used in high-speed data emission devices such as wireless data emission systems.
Advantages of GaN over other semiconductor materials such as GaAs (and explain how they improve the device performance)
GaN has the lowest sensitivity to ionizing radiations compared to GaAs hence it can be used in satellites. The other advantage over GaAs and other semiconductors is that it can be used in very high voltages and temperatures, making it most applicable in amplification of microwave energy (Akasaki and Amano 9001). The specific advantages over other semiconductors have made the devices gain specific advantages; the devices have high dielectric strength, high current density and high temperature operation capacities. In addition, the devices have high-speed switching and on-resistance is considerably low (Terao et al. 195).
Works Cited
Akasaki, Isamu and Hiroshi Amano. “Breakthroughs in improving crystal quality of GaN and invention of the p–n junction blue-light-emitting diode.” Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 27.9 (2006): 9001-9010. Print.
Terao, Shinji, Motoaki Iwaya, Ryo Nakamura, Satoshi Kamiyama, Hiroshi Amano and Isamu Akasaki. “Fracture of AlxGa1-xN/GaN heterostructure —compositional and impurity dependence.” Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 40.1 (2001): 195-197. Print.