Strain Release in GaN Epitaxy on 4° Off-Axis 4H-SiC

Abstract

A hybrid field-effect transistor (HyFET), superior for power electronic applications, can be created by harnessing the merits of two representative wide-bandgap semiconductors, gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC). Yet, the incompactness in the epitaxy techniques hinders the development of the HyFET-GaN is usually grown on on-axis foreign substrates including SiC, whereas SiC homoepitaxy prefers off-axis substrates. This work presents a GaN-based heterostructure epitaxially grown on a conventional 4° off-axis 4H-SiC substrate, which manifests its high quality and suitability for constructing GaN-based high-electron-mobility transistors, thereby suggesting a practical approach to realizing HyFETs. In the meanwhile, a distinct two-step biaxial strain-relaxation process is proposed and studied with comprehensive characterizations.

Keywords: 4H-silicon carbide; gallium nitride; heterogeneous epitaxy; hybrid field-effect transistors; off-axis substrates.