1/28/2021
Written by
Dr. Samuel Graham, the Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. Professor and Chair of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, presented the Spring 2021 lecture of the MechSE Distinguished Seminar Series.
His talk was titled, "Materials, Manufacturing, and Metrology: Keys to Developing The Future of Wide Bandgap Electronic Devices."
Abstract: Wide bandgap electronics are currently under development due to their potential to create some of the most advanced RF, optoelectronic and power electronics in the world. Applications include visible and UV LEDs and laser diodes, 5G communications, radar systems, and inverters and converters for electrical power systems. The growth of materials based on gallium nitride and more recently gallium oxide is expected to help create technological advancements in each of these areas. As these nitride and oxide semiconductors are being developed, there are a number of new materials, manufacturing techniques, and thermal and mechanical metrology methods that must be concurrently created to help ensure the transition of these materials to their intended applications. Key concerns are scalable methods for growing and packaging the devices, materials and architectures needed to ensure efficient thermal management, and the control of stresses to prevent device failure.
In this talk, we will discuss a range of materials and device architectures that are being developed to enable efficient heat dissipation from both GaN and Ga2O3 devices starting at the device level. We will also cover a range of thermal and stress metrology methods that we have developed to enable the measurement of temperature and stresses in the devices both under steady state and transient operation. Finally, an actively cooled power substrate that is being developed for packaging power devices will be presented. At each step, we will show how considerations for materials development, metrology techniques, and methods for scalable manufacturing are necessary to help transition these advancements to applications.
Graham leads the Electronics Manufacturing and Reliability Laboratory, which is focused on the electrical and thermal characterization, packaging, and reliability of wide bandgap semiconductors, solar cells, and flexible electronics. He also holds a courtesy appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech, a joint appointment with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan. He is a Fellow of ASME, a member of the Engineering Sciences Research Foundation Advisory Board of Sandia National Laboratories, and a member of the Emerging Technologies Technical Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Commerce.