Graphene quilts for thermal management of high-power GaN.pdfVIP

ARTICLE Received 16 Nov 2011 | Accepted 5 Apr 2012 | Published 8 May 2012 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1828 Graphene quilts for thermal management of high-power GaN transistors 1 1 1,† 1,2 Zhong Yan , Guanxiong Liu , Javed M. Khan Alexander A. Balandin Self-heating is a severe problem for high-power gallium nitride (GaN) electronic and optoelectronic devices. Various thermal management solutions, for example, flip-chip bonding or composite substrates, have been attempted. However, temperature rise due to dissipated heat still limits applications of the nitride-based technology. Here we show that thermal management of GaN transistors can be substantially improved via introduction of alternative heat-escaping channels implemented with few-layer graphene—an excellent heat conductor. The graphene–graphite quilts were formed on top of AlGaN/GaN transistors on SiC substrates. Using micro-Raman spectroscopy for in situ monitoring we demonstrated that temperature of the hotspots can be lowered by ~20 °C in transistors operating at ~13 W mm − 1, which corresponds to an order-of-magnitude increase in the device lifetime. The simulations indicate that graphene quilts perform even better in GaN devices on sapphire substrates. The proposed local heat spreading with materials that preserve their thermal properties at nanometre scale represents a transformative change in thermal management. 1 Nano-Device Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Bourns College of Engineering, University of California—Riverside, Riverside, California 92521 USA. 2 Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California—Riverside, Riverside, California 92521, USA. †Present address: Intel Corporation, Hillsborough, Oregon, USA. Correspondence and requests