Project Grant N000142312479

This $137,399 National Science Foundation project grant supports research at North Carolina State University to develop a novel solid phase epitaxy process for highly doped p-type junctions in gallium nitride. The goal is to enable high current and high voltage power devices for more efficient power electronic systems. The research will involve molecular dynamic and process simulation, ion implantation, optimization of solid phase epitaxy annealing, fabrication of diode structures, and...

This $500,000 National Science Foundation project grant supports research into the reliability and failure analysis of vertical gallium nitride power devices from 2023 to 2025. Funded through the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), the award to Arizona State University will advance fundamental understanding of failure mechanisms in vertical GaN power devices. The university will use an interdisciplinary approach involving materials growth, device fabrication, reliability testing and failure...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, funded under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), aims to develop ultra-wide bandgap AlGaN channel transistors capable of 10 kV breakdown voltage and ~10x lower on-state resistance compared to incumbent SiC technology. The $563,851 project, running from July 2025 to June 2030, will focus on demonstrating these state-of-the-art power electronics transistors and investigating the underlying physical mechanisms that govern their operation and...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering (CFDA 47.041) project grant, awarded to Arizona State University (ASU), aims to design and fabricate high aspect ratio beta-gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3) fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs) for use in high-efficiency power converter applications. The key aspects of the proposed work include: Investigating an in-situ gallium etching technique within a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor to enable the fabrication of tall, high...

This $476,190 Project Grant awarded by the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) program (CFDA 81.135) to North Carolina State University (NC State) supports the development of electrically conductive thick gallium nitride (GaN) substrates. The goal is to enable the creation of vertical GaN power electronics and demonstrate the feasibility of lateral expansion in crystals grown using the proposed method to validate its use for larger diameter substrates. This...

This Project Grant award of $200,000 was provided by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science under the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program (CFDA 81.049) to Adroit Materials, Inc., a small business specializing in III-nitride semiconductor technology. The funding supports the development of a 1.2 kV class gallium nitride (GaN) vertical U-MOSFET with reach-through protection and shielding by magnesium implantation. This device is intended to advance power electronics...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $249,969 to the University of Delaware to enhance the performance of gallium nitride (GaN)-on-silicon high electron mobility transistor technology for high frequency and high power electronics applications. The key research activities aim to develop a novel self-aligned T-shaped gate fabrication process to improve the radio frequency and power performance of GaN-on-silicon devices,...

This $300,000 federal Project Grant was awarded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The grant aims to experimentally demonstrate wafer-scale 2D transistors in the "silicon-impossible" territory (sub-5-nm channel length) and investigate their fundamental limits through a combination of experimental and theoretical efforts. Key objectives include: (1) developing a high-throughput, scalable technique for...

This $1,103,042 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) aims to enable more efficient power delivery to AI processors in data centers. The award supports research activities to develop advanced wide-bandgap microelectronics and power electronics technologies, including: Probing optimal doping schemes and transport properties of multi-channel wide-bandgap materials, such as gallium nitride (GaN), to achieve high-performance power...

This $419,379 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) aims to develop innovative gallium nitride (GaN)-based terahertz (THz) photoconductive emitters with an optical-to-THz energy conversion efficiency approaching or exceeding 100%. The research project will focus on three core areas: (1) designing GaN photoconductive switches with high breakdown electrical fields, (2) investigating ultrafast carrier dynamics and THz generation in...