AlN grown by CBE for power device applications

Abstract

Thermal and electrical properties of aluminum nitride (AlN) epilayers grown by chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) were investigated. A high growth rate of 5.9 ± 0.4 µm/h was achieved using trimethyl aluminum and ammonia as group III and V precursors, respectively, at a growth temperature below 600 °C. The thermal conductivity and breakdown field of 10 µm thick AlN epilayers were measured to be 57 W/(m.K) and 1.04 106 V/cm, respectively. These results demonstrate the potential of CBE as an alternative growth method for the development of thick AlN layers in high power device applications.