Reduced thermal resistance in AlGaN/GaN multi-mesa-channel high electron mobility transistors

Dramatic reduction of thermal resistance was achieved in AlGaN/GaN Multi-Mesa-Channel (MMC) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) on sapphire substrates. Compared with the conventional planar device, the MMC HEMT exhibits much less negative slope of the I-D-V-DS curves at high V-DS regime, indicating less self-heating. Using a method proposed by Menozzi and co-workers, we obtained a thermal resistance of 4.8 K-mm/W at ambient temperature of similar to 350K and power dissipation of similar to 9W/mm. This value compares well to 4.1 K-mm/W, which is the thermal resistance of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on expensive single crystal diamond substrates and the lowest reported value in literature. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.