Thermal conductivity enhancement of aluminum scandium nitride grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Gustavo A. Alvarez; Joseph Casamento; Len van Deurzen; Md Irfan Khan; Kamruzzaman Khan; Eugene Jeong; Elaheh Ahmadi; Huili Grace Xing; Debdeep Jena; Zhiting Tian

doi:10.1080/21663831.2023.2279667

Materials Research Letters (Dec 2023)

Thermal conductivity enhancement of aluminum scandium nitride grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Gustavo A. Alvarez,
Joseph Casamento,
Len van Deurzen,
Md Irfan Khan,
Kamruzzaman Khan,
Eugene Jeong,
Elaheh Ahmadi,
Huili Grace Xing,
Debdeep Jena,
Zhiting Tian

Affiliations

Gustavo A. Alvarez: Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Joseph Casamento: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Len van Deurzen: School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Md Irfan Khan: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Kamruzzaman Khan: Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Eugene Jeong: Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Elaheh Ahmadi: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Huili Grace Xing: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Debdeep Jena: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Zhiting Tian: Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21663831.2023.2279667
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 11, no. 12
pp. 1048 – 1054

Abstract

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Aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN) has been receiving increasing interest for radio frequency microelectromechanical systems because of their higher achievable bandwidths owing to the larger piezoelectric response of AlScN compared to AlN. However, alloying scandium (Sc) with aluminum nitride (AlN) significantly lowers the thermal conductivity of AlScN due to phonon alloy scattering. Self-heating in AlScN devices potentially limits power handling, constrains the maximum transmission rate, and ultimately leads to thermal failure. We grew plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE) AlScN on AlN-Al2O3 and GaN-Al2O3 substrates, and compared the cross-plane thermal conductivity to current work on AlScN grown on Si substrates.

Published in Materials Research Letters

ISSN: 2166-3831 (Online)
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering: Materials of engineering and construction. Mechanics of materials
Website: https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/tmrl

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