Objectives
Next generation THz-communications networks will require an amplifier capable of unprecedented high-frequency, high-power performance. Our team aims to create an aluminum nitride-based transistor that will serve as the fundamental component for these amplifiers, with efficient operation at 140, 220, and 340 GHz.
Approach
The efforts for this task can be grouped into crystal growth and device fabrication. Our crystal growth is accomplished via molecular beam epitaxy, which requires constant optimization to achieve the highest quality crystal growth. Simultaneously, transistors are being fabricated on the as-grown crystals, and are characterized with DC and high-frequency performance metrics.
We have initiated discussion with the power amplifier design team to discuss how our transistors can be optimized for peak performance within their design. This collaboration will continue to grow as our devices near the testing stage for large-signal, high frequency characterization.
Accomplishments
Our team has established a growth and fabrication process that gives us complete control from the merging of the atoms in the crystal to the final step of device testing. We have demonstrated high-voltage performance via breakdown measurements of our transistors, as well as promising small-signal high frequency characteristics.
Team Leaders
Debdeep Jena is the Richard E. Lunquist Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow, Professor at Cornell University where he holds a joint appointment in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Debdeep Jena received the B. Tech. degree with a major in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur in 1998, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2003. His research and teaching interests are in the MBE growth and device applications of quantum semiconductorheterostructures (currently III-V nitride semiconductors), investigation of charge transport in nanostructured semiconducting materials such as graphene, nanowires and nanocrystals, and their device applications, and in the theory of charge, heat, and spin transport in nanomaterials. He is the author on several journal publications, including articles in Science, Physical Review Letters, and Electron Device Letters among others. He has received two best student paper awards in 2000 and 2002 for his Ph.D. dissertation research, the NSF CAREER award in 2007, and the Joyce award for excellence in undergraduate teaching in 2010.
Huili (Grace) Xing is the Richard E. Lunquist Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow, Professor at Cornell University where she holds a joint appointment in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Xing received a Bachelor Degree in Physics from Peking University. After that, she pursued a Master Degree in Material Science and Engineering at Lehigh University. Wanting to work with devices that use wonderful material properties, she went to the University of California at Santa Barbara for her Ph.D. and eventually earned a degree in Electrical Engineering. From 2004 to 2014 she was a faculty member at the University of Notre Dame. Xing joined Cornell in 2015.
Publications
A. Hickman, R. Chaudhuri, N. Moser, M. Elliot, K. Nomoto, L. Li, J. C. M. Hwang, H. Xing, & D. Jena, “Double-Directional Channel Measurements for Urban THz Communications on a Linear Route,” presented at the 2021 Device Research Conference (DRC), Santa Barbara, CA, June 20-23, 2021.
A. Hickman, R. Chaudhuri, L. Li, K. Nomoto, S. J. Bader, J. Hwang, H. Xing, & D. Jena (2020, December 2). First RF Power Operation of AlN/GaN/AlN HEMTs with 3.3 W/mm at 10 GHz. IEEE Xplore [Online]. Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9277525.
A. Hickman, R. Chaudhuri, L. Li, K. Nomoto, J. C. M. Hwang, H. Xing, & D. Jena (2020, December 2). First RF Power Operation of AIN/GaN/AIN HEMTs With >3 A/mm and 3 W/mm at 10 GHz. IEEE Xplore [Online]. Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9277525.
Y. Cho, J.J. Encomendero, H. Xing, & D. Jena (2020, October 6). N-polar GaN/AlN Resonant Tunneling Diodes. arXiv.org [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.03079.
D. Jena, H. Xing, L. Li, K. Nomoto, M. Pan, W. Li, A. Hickman, J. Miller, K. Lee, Z. Hu, S. J. Bader, S. M. Lee, & J. Hwang (2020, March 31). GaN HEMTs on Si with Regrown Contacts and Cutoff/Maximum Oscillation Frequencies of 250/204 GHz. IEEE Xplore [Online]. Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9051661.
A. Hickman, R. Chaudhuri, S. Bader, K. Nomoto, K. Lee, H. Xing & D. Jena, "High Breakdown Voltage in RF AlN/GaN/AlN Quantum Well HEMTs," in IEEE Electron Device Letters, June 2019.
D. Jena, R. Page, J. A. Casamento, P. Dang, J. Singhal, Z. Zhang, J. Wright, G. Khalsa, Y. Cho, & H. G. Xing (2019, May 18). The New Nitrides: Layered, Ferroelectric, Magnetic, Metallic and Superconducting Nitrides to Boost the GaN Photonics and Electronics Eco-system. arXiv.org [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.07627