Robust Avalanche (1.5 kV, 2 kA/cm²) in Vertical GaN Diodes on Patterned Sapphire Substrate

Wang, Yifan; Xiao, Ming; Yang, Zineng; Porter, Matthew; Cheng, Kai; Song, Qihao; Kravchenko, Ivan; Zhang, Yuhao

doi:10.1109/LED.2025.3548905

Robust Avalanche (1.5 kV, 2 kA/cm²) in Vertical GaN Diodes on Patterned Sapphire Substrate

Journal Article · Wed Mar 05 23:00:00 EST 2025 · IEEE Electron Device Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2025.3548905· OSTI ID:2573292

^[1]; ^[2]; Yang, Zineng ^[1]; ^[1]; Cheng, Kai ^[3]; ^[1]; ^[4]; ^[1]

Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)
Xidian Univ., Xi’an (China)
Enkris Semiconductor Inc., Suzhou (China)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)

The lack of avalanche capability is a key limitation of current lateral GaN devices. Despite the report of avalanche in vertical GaN-on-GaN devices, the high wafer cost hinders device commercialization. Here, in this work, we demonstrate a circuit-level avalanche in vertical GaN diodes on low-cost patterned sapphire substrate (PSS), with the avalanche voltage (1.57 kV) and avalanche current density (>2 kA/cm²) both being the highest reported in GaN devices on foreign substrates. The PSS enables a lower dislocation density than conventional sapphire substrate and is employed in high-voltage GaN devices for the first time. The avalanche voltage in the circuit test reaches 98% of the parallel-plane limit, further affirming that near-ideal avalanche breakdown can be realized on GaN devices on foreign substrates. These results show the promise of the GaN-on-PSS platform for low-cost, robust power devices.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 2573292

Journal Information:: IEEE Electron Device Letters, Journal Name: IEEE Electron Device Letters Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 46; ISSN 0741-3106; ISSN 1558-0563

Publisher:: IEEECopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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avalanche
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Robust Avalanche (1.5 kV, 2 kA/cm²) in Vertical GaN Diodes on Patterned Sapphire Substrate

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