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Nitride Semiconductors Revolution: Material, Devices and Applications
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Nitride Semiconductors Revolution: Material, Devices and Applications

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microelectronics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 19907

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Mauro Mosca

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, I-90128 Palermo, Italy
Interests: nitride semiconductors; GaN-based light-emitting devices; ZnO/GaN heterojunctions; solar-blind detectors; LED applications; pulsed laser deposition of oxide films

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the GaN revolution! It is not an exaggeration to define the spectacular developments in the field of nitride semiconductors of last years as a revolution. Only twenty years ago, we illuminated our houses with an incandescent filament that produced light but also a significant cost on the electric bill. Today, we save more than 80% of energy with LED lamps. And that is not all: the newest nitride power devices have performances at least 10 times better than existing silicon devices, leading to significant reductions in energy consumption; amplifiers delivering 50 W in the Ku-band are commercially available; Blu-ray is now an established and well-known technology but twenty years ago was familiar only to Star Wars fans. Still, solar-blind flame detectors, UV sources, nanoscale electronics, spintronics, etc., the list could go on and on!

The purpose of this Special Issue is to cover some of the new research on nitride semiconductors, concerning the design of the devices and the development of new applications, along with advances in material processing. This Special Issue provides a chance to capture the latest advances, propose new exciting challenges, and disseminate innovative studies and breakthrough discoveries on nitride semiconductor devices.

The final goal of this issue is to become an outstanding reference for the latest progress in nitride semiconductor devices and applications for all the researchers working in this field. Being conscious that the revolution is far from over!

Prof. Mosca Mauro
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nitride-based light-emitting diodes
  • nitride-based lasers
  • nitride-based power devices
  • nitride-based microwave and RF devices
  • III-nitride solar cells
  • solar-blind detectors
  • III-nitride epitaxy
  • radar and GaN-based power amplifiers
  • nitride nanostructures
  • nitride spintronics

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 1716 KiB  
Article
Individually Switchable InGaN/GaN Nano-LED Arrays as Highly Resolved Illumination Engines
by Katarzyna Kluczyk-Korch, Sergio Moreno, Joan Canals, Angel Diéguez, Jan Gülink, Jana Hartmann, Andreas Waag, Aldo Di Carlo and Matthias Auf der Maur
Electronics 2021, 10(15), 1829; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10151829 - 30 Jul 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2321
Abstract
GaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been shown to effectively operate down to nanoscale dimensions, which allows further downscaling the chip-based LED display technology from micro- to nanoscale. This brings up the question of what resolution limit of the illumination pattern can be [...] Read more.
GaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been shown to effectively operate down to nanoscale dimensions, which allows further downscaling the chip-based LED display technology from micro- to nanoscale. This brings up the question of what resolution limit of the illumination pattern can be obtained. We show two different approaches to achieve individually switchable nano-LED arrays. We evaluated both designs in terms of near-field spot size and optical crosstalk between neighboring pixels by using finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations. The numerical results were compared with the performance data from a fabricated nano-LED array. The outcome underlines the influence of geometry of the LED array and materials used in contact lines on the final illumination spot size and shape. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitride Semiconductors Revolution: Material, Devices and Applications)
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11 pages, 5113 KiB  
Article
Numerical Analysis of the High Pressure MOVPE Upside-Down Reactor for GaN Growth
by Przemyslaw Niedzielski, Ewa Raj, Zbigniew Lisik, Jerzy Plesiewicz, Ewa Grzanka, Robert Czernecki and Mike Leszczynski
Electronics 2021, 10(12), 1503; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10121503 - 21 Jun 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1965
Abstract
The present paper focuses on the high-pressure metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) upside-down vertical reactor (where the inlet of cold gases is below a hot susceptor). This study aims to investigate thermo-kinetic phenomena taking place during the GaN (gallium nitride) growth process using [...] Read more.
The present paper focuses on the high-pressure metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) upside-down vertical reactor (where the inlet of cold gases is below a hot susceptor). This study aims to investigate thermo-kinetic phenomena taking place during the GaN (gallium nitride) growth process using trimethylgallium and ammonia at a pressure of above 2 bar. High pressure accelerates the growth process, but it results in poor thickness and quality in the obtained layers; hence, understanding the factors influencing non-uniformity is crucial. The present investigations have been conducted with the aid of ANSYS Fluent finite volume method commercial software. The obtained results confirm the possibility of increasing the growth rate by more than six times through increasing the pressure from 0.5 bar to 2.5 bar. The analysis shows which zones vortexes form in. Special attention should be paid to the transitional flow within the growth zone as well as the viewport. Furthermore, the normal reactor design cannot be used under the considered conditions, even for the lower pressure value of 0.5 bar, due to high turbulences. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitride Semiconductors Revolution: Material, Devices and Applications)
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12 pages, 2221 KiB  
Article
Excitation Intensity and Temperature-Dependent Performance of InGaN/GaN Multiple Quantum Wells Photodetectors
by Alessandro Caria, Carlo De Santi, Ezgi Dogmus, Farid Medjdoub, Enrico Zanoni, Gaudenzio Meneghesso and Matteo Meneghini
Electronics 2020, 9(11), 1840; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9111840 - 3 Nov 2020
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2215
Abstract
In this article, we investigate the behavior of InGaN–GaN Multiple Quantum Well (MQW) photodetectors under different excitation density (616 µW/cm2 to 7.02 W/cm2) and temperature conditions (from 25 °C to 65 °C), relating the experimental results to carrier recombination/escape dynamics. [...] Read more.
In this article, we investigate the behavior of InGaN–GaN Multiple Quantum Well (MQW) photodetectors under different excitation density (616 µW/cm2 to 7.02 W/cm2) and temperature conditions (from 25 °C to 65 °C), relating the experimental results to carrier recombination/escape dynamics. We analyzed the optical-to-electrical power conversion efficiency of the devices as a function of excitation intensity and temperature, demonstrating that: (a) at low excitation densities, there is a lowering in the optical-to-electrical conversion efficiency and in the short-circuit current with increasing temperature; (b) the same quantities increase with increasing temperature when using high excitation power. Moreover, (c) we observed an increase in the signal of photocurrent measurements at sub-bandgap excitation wavelengths with increasing temperature. The observed behavior is explained by considering the interplay between Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH) recombination and carrier escape. The first mechanism is relevant at low excitation densities and increases with temperature, thus lowering the efficiency; the latter is important at high excitation densities, when the effective barrier height is reduced. We developed a model for reproducing the variation of JSC with temperature; through this model, we calculated the effective barrier height for carrier escape, and demonstrated a lowering of this barrier with increasing temperature, that can explain the increase in short-circuit current at high excitation densities. In addition, we extracted the energy position of the defects responsible for SRH recombination, which are located 0.33 eV far from midgap. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitride Semiconductors Revolution: Material, Devices and Applications)
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10 pages, 1593 KiB  
Article
Progress in Violet Light-Emitting Diodes Based on ZnO/GaN Heterojunction
by Roberto Macaluso, Giuseppe Lullo, Isodiana Crupi, Daniele Sciré, Fulvio Caruso, Eric Feltin and Mauro Mosca
Electronics 2020, 9(6), 991; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9060991 - 13 Jun 2020
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3756
Abstract
Progress in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on ZnO/GaN heterojunctions has run into several obstacles during the last twenty years. While both the energy bandgap and lattice parameter of the two semiconductors are favorable to the development of such devices, other features related to [...] Read more.
Progress in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on ZnO/GaN heterojunctions has run into several obstacles during the last twenty years. While both the energy bandgap and lattice parameter of the two semiconductors are favorable to the development of such devices, other features related to the electrical and structural properties of the GaN layer prevent an efficient radiative recombination. This work illustrates some advances made on ZnO/GaN-based LEDs, by using high-thickness GaN layers for the p-region of the device and an ad hoc device topology. Heterojunction LEDs consist of a quasicoalesced non-intentionally doped ZnO nanorod layer deposited by chemical bath deposition onto a metal–organic vapor-phase epitaxy -grown epitaxial layer of p-doped GaN. Circular 200 μm-sized violet-emitting LEDs with a p-n contact distance as low as 3 μm exhibit a turn-on voltage of 3 V, and an emitting optical power at 395 nm of a few microwatts. Electroluminescence spectrum investigation shows that the emissive process can be ascribed to four different recombination transitions, dominated by the electron-hole recombinations on the ZnO side. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitride Semiconductors Revolution: Material, Devices and Applications)
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12 pages, 4033 KiB  
Article
92.5% Average Power Efficiency Fully Integrated Floating Buck Quasi-Resonant LED Drivers Using GaN FETs
by Mei Yu Soh, S. Lawrence Selvaraj, Lulu Peng and Kiat Seng Yeo
Electronics 2020, 9(4), 575; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9040575 - 29 Mar 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3143
Abstract
LEDs are highly energy efficient and have substantially longer lifetimes compared to other existing lighting technologies. In order to facilitate the new generation of LED devices, approaches to improve power efficiency with increased integration level for lighting device should be analysed. This paper [...] Read more.
LEDs are highly energy efficient and have substantially longer lifetimes compared to other existing lighting technologies. In order to facilitate the new generation of LED devices, approaches to improve power efficiency with increased integration level for lighting device should be analysed. This paper proposes a fully on-chip integrated LED driver design implemented using heterogeneous integration of gallium nitride (GaN) devices atop BCD circuits. The performance of the proposed design is then compared with the conventional fully on-board integration of power devices with the LED driver integrated circuit (IC). The experimental results confirm that the fully on-chip integrated LED driver achieves a consistently higher power efficiency value compared with the fully on-board design within the input voltage range of 4.5–5.5 V. The maximal percentage improvement in the efficiency of the on-chip solution compared with the on-board solution is 18%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitride Semiconductors Revolution: Material, Devices and Applications)
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11 pages, 2743 KiB  
Article
Device Design Assessment of GaN Merged P-i-N Schottky Diodes
by Yuliang Zhang, Xing Lu and Xinbo Zou
Electronics 2019, 8(12), 1550; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics8121550 - 16 Dec 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5625
Abstract
Device characteristics of GaN merged P-i-N Schottky (MPS) diodes were evaluated and studied via two-dimensional technology computer-aided design (TCAD) after calibrating model parameters and critical electrical fields with experimental proven results. The device’s physical dimensions and drift layer concentration were varied to study [...] Read more.
Device characteristics of GaN merged P-i-N Schottky (MPS) diodes were evaluated and studied via two-dimensional technology computer-aided design (TCAD) after calibrating model parameters and critical electrical fields with experimental proven results. The device’s physical dimensions and drift layer concentration were varied to study their influence on the device’s performance. Extending the inter-p-GaN region distance or the Schottky contact portion could enhance the forward conduction capability; however, this leads to compromised electrical field screening effects from neighboring PN junctions, as well as reduced breakdown voltage. By reducing the drift layer background concentration, a higher breakdown voltage was expected for MPSs, as a larger portion of the drift layer itself could be depleted for sustaining vertical reverse voltage. However, lowering the drift layer concentration would also result in a reduction in forward conduction capability. The method and results of this study provide a guideline for designing MPS diodes with target blocking voltage and forward conduction at a low bias. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitride Semiconductors Revolution: Material, Devices and Applications)
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