Characterization of the Thermal Boundary Resistance of a Ga2O3/4H-SiC Composite Wafer

• Published in: 2020 19th IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm) pp. 154 - 157
• Main Authors: Song, Yiwen, Chatterjee, Bikramjit, McGray, Craig, Zhukovsky, Sarit, Leach, Jacob H., Hess, Tina, Foley, Brian M., Choi, Sukwon
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.07.2020
• Subjects: Conductivity; Fabrication; Heterointerface; Performance evaluation; Steady-state thermoreflectance; Substrate engineering; Thermal boundary resistance; Thermal conductivity; Thermal engineering; Thermal resistance; Thermoreflectance; β-Ga 2 O 3
• ISSN: 2577-0799
• DOI: 10.1109/ITherm45881.2020.9190287

The β-gallium oxide (Ga 2 O 3 ) material system offers the potential to dramatically improve the electrical performance and cost-effectiveness of next-generation power electronics. This is because of its ultra-wide bandgap (~4.8 eV) and the availability of high-quality single-crystal bulk substrates. However, the low thermal conductivity of Ga 2 O 3 (11-27 W/m-K) implies that significant thermal challenges need to be overcome to commercialize Ga 2 O 3 devices. In the present work, a single crystal (010) Ga 2 O 3 wafer was integrated with a 4H-SiC substrate via fusion bonding to address this concern of poor thermal conductivity. A differential steady-state thermoreflectance method was established to measure the thermal boundary resistance at the Ga 2 O 3 /SiC interface (100 m 2 K/GW), which has yet to be reported due to the limited probing depth of conventional frequency- and time-domain thermoreflectance techniques.