Funding opportunity number: HR001123S0051CATALOG of federal domestic assistance (CFDA) number(S): 12.910 research and technology developmentthe 80 year old challenge of turning ALN into a…

Funding opportunity number: HR001123S0051CATALOG of federal domestic assistance (CFDA) number(S): 12.910 research and technology developmentthe 80 year old challenge of turning ALN into a semiconductor had seen very little progress until 2021 when GA tech successfully demonstrated P-type ALN with hole concentrations exceeding 3X1018 CM-3 1. In less than two years, both P-type and N-type carrier concentrations greater than 4.4-6.1 X 1018 CM-3 were subsequently ACHIEVED2,3. These carrier concentrations are sufficiently high to allow reasonable ohmic contacts, albeit with approaches that currently have no corresponding theory to explain their limited success. These advances have resulted in both PN diodes with 3 a CM2 and transistor structures with 357 a MM and 37 a MM current densities for N-type and P-type mesfets, respectively. As promising as these early results have been, they fall short of the contact resistances needed for state-of-the-art devices and have come with limited theoretical and characterization understanding. This must be rectified if the field is going to move forward. Given 1) ALN has exceptional properties for electronics including excellent thermal conductivity, a saturation velocity almost (93%) as high as that of GAN, but critical electric fields for breakdown which are 3-5X that of GAN and SIC (attributable to IT having the largest bandgap (6.1 EV) of any semiconductor) with a 2) commercially available 2 substrate and 4 research scale substrate already available and 3) enormous optoelectronics markets that can expedite the ecosystem needed for widespread adoption (as previously was the case for gaas, INP, and GAN), IT is not a stretch to envisage ALN being the next revolution in electronics. To enable this prediction, a new nitride ERA (ANNE) team has been assembled as described in figure 1 to advance the state of the art in: 1) epitaxy capable of high N- and P-type carrier concentrations, 2) state of the art characterization, 3) materials modeling, 4) advanced device thermal, electrical modeling and 5) fabrication with 6) novel new contact chemistry and concepts. Each of these technologies will be used to leverage all three aspects of diode design to exceed the DARPA uwbgs diode metrics: a) the metal-semiconductor interface, B) the bulk of the semiconductor and C) device design and implementation. To impact a new ERA of DOD electronics, industry partners must be involved, and technology transitioned swiftly to enable advanced devices and impact evaluations. For this reason, we have partnered with RTX (formerly raytheon) to ensure rapid and relevant technology transition for near term impact on DOD missions.