Gallium nitride is touted as the next-generation semiconductor that could one day replace silicon, but research into this material is still in its infancy. Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other US institutes decided to take the technology to the next level and tested the material at temperatures above 500℃.
The human desire to explore the planets of the solar system extends beyond those far from the Sun. The extreme temperatures on Venus instantly melt lead, and ordinary electronics won’t last even a moment there…
Even if the researchers sent a spacecraft with a heat-resistant exterior, the onboard silicon-based electronics would weaken under the extreme temperatures, making the exercise a futile one.
Gallium nitride can withstand temperatures above 500℃, but scientists didn’t really know how electronics designed using this material would perform above 300℃, the operating limit of devices made of silicon. To study the effect of temperature on ohmic contacts, the researchers placed the contacts under 500℃ for 48 hours straight. They found that the contacts remained structurally intact, a promising sign for the development of high-performance transistors.
Even though gallium nitride is touted as the next generation semiconductor, scientists need years of study to achieve its widespread use. For example, researchers have very little information about its stability. Gallium nitride resistance is inversely proportional to size. While this can be circumvented, semiconductors also have to connect to other electronics, providing their own resistance. This resistance, called contact resistance, remains fixed in the device, and an excess of it makes devices inefficient.
To better understand the contact resistance in gallium nitride devices, researchers at MIT have created structures that consist of a series of resistors and allow for the measurement of contact resistance and material resistance. In collaboration with Rice University, the researchers placed these structures on hot 500℃ cartridges and measured their resistance. The structures were kept inside a special oven for 72 hours to determine how the resistance changes over time. The contact resistance remained unchanged even at high temperatures, but after 48 hours, the material began to degrade. The results of the study were published in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
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