Ce stage s’inscrit dans le cadre du projet Novel AlGaN channel transistors for high voltage applications (ACTION) financé par l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche. Ce projet vise à développer et améliorer des technologies à base de GaN pour des applications dans les domaines des hautes tensions (convertisseurs d’énergie électrique).

This internship takes part of the HBV (High Breakdown Voltage) and ACTION (Novel AlGaN channel transistors for high voltage applications) projects, funded by the French agency “Agence Nationale de la Recherche”. The scope of these projects is to provide leading edge technologies in the field of III-V semiconductor compounds through the development and the improvement of AlGaN-based technologies for high voltage applications (> 1 kV). A high Al content is required to take advantage of the excellent voltage withstand of AlN. However, to achieve strong breakdown fields, material purity and technological steps have to be improved. Thus, a better knowledge of the defects introduced during manufacturing and their impact on the static and in operation performance of the devices is crucial. Control or removal of defects that act as traps will result in a reduction of the trapping effect and therefore a decrease of the leakage current, an increase of the electron mobility and a higher breakdown voltage.

Ce stage s’inscrit dans le cadre des projets HBV (High Breakdown Voltage) et ACTION (Novel AlGaN channel transistors for high voltage applications) financés par l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche. Ces projets visent à développer et améliorer des technologies à base d’AlGaN pour des applications dans le domaine des hautes tensions (> 1 kV). Une forte teneur en Al est recherchée pour bénéficier de l’excellente tenue en tension de l’AlN. Cependant, pour atteindre de forts champs de claquage et obtenir des composants résistants à de hautes tensions, des améliorations au niveau de la pureté des matériaux et des étapes technologiques sont essentielles. Ainsi, une bonne connaissance de la nature des défauts introduits pendant la fabrication et leur impact sur les performances statiques et dynamiques des composants est primordiale. Une réduction des effets de piégeage des électrons, en contrôlant ou éliminant les défauts qui agissent comme des pièges, conduira à une diminution du courant de fuite, une augmentation de la mobilité des porteurs et une tension de claquage plus élevée.

The Japanese-French Research lAboratory for Semiconductor physics and Technology, J-FAST, is opening a 5-year assistant professor position at the University of Tsukuba in Prof. Gheeraert group (NEEL Institute, Grenoble, and J-FAST Tsukuba).

This international lab created in 2016 tightens collaborative scientific activities between CNRS and Université Grenoble Alpes in France, together with University of Tsukuba and Air Liquide Laboratories in Japan, in the field of pure and applied physics and materials science. More precisely it involves a core research program dedicated to fundamental physics and technology of advanced electronic and opto-electronic devices, with a particular focus on atomic scale processing physics and technology.

The assistant professor will develop a research project on wide bandgap semiconductors device technology, including atomic scale processing. He or she will be in charge of a plasma ICP etcher, and will have access to the open facility at University of Tsukuba. He or she will benefits from experts on wide bandgap semiconductor at Grenoble and Tsukuba (Ga₂O₃, GaN, diamond, …) and from Air Liquide expertise on gas precursors. All research projects in that context will be considered.

The demand for power electronic devices keeps increasing due to the rapid development of industries related to electricity, automotive and consumer electronics. In order to meet this demand, the use of ultra wide bandgap semiconductors such as diamond, aluminum nitride or gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) has emerged as a potential avenue for development. Among these materials, β-phase Ga₂O₃ has many advantages, such as an large bandgap energy (4.6-4.9 eV), a particularly high breakdown voltage (» 8 MV/cm) as well as a high electron mobility (» 250 cm²/Vs). In addition, the availability of large and reasonable-cost Ga₂O₃ substrates makes it possible to consider this semiconductor as building block for next-generation power devices.