Fundamentals of Compound Semiconductor based power and RF devices
The significant market investment in semiconductors, particularly in compound semiconductors like GaN and SiC, suggests a future of rapid electronic device innovation, where application-driven advancements challenge conventional assumptions and lead to unexpected breakthroughs, as exemplified by the dominance of Si in very-high-voltage applications despite SiC and GaN's theoretical advantages.
Overview
The recent surge in market investment in semiconductor industries indicates that electronic devices will witness flourishing innovations in the coming years. One such segment is compound semiconductor electronics commonly used in high-power, radio frequency (RF) and optoelectronic applications; GaN, GaAs, InP, SiC to name a few. Now, many corollaries exist in (compound) semiconductor technologies. For instance, SiC and GaN are known to outperform Si for high-voltage applications due to a large bandgap, but Si devices dominate the very-high-voltage application segment. Similarly, BJTs are known to be slow primarily due to the diffusion mechanism at the base, but it’s the BJT (HBT, to be precise), that can exceed a cut-off frequency of 300 GHz. This talk will try to understand how applications lead to innovations and eventually give birth to these corollaries.
Presenters
Biplab Sarkar, Associate Professors, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee
Brief Biography
Dr. Biplab Sarkar is an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. He is currently involved in the development of commercial-grade (ultra)wide bandgap semiconductor based electronic devices. He completed his PhD from NC State University, the USA, in 2015, where he worked on semiconductor memory devices. Later on, he also did postdoctoral research at NC State University in the area of wide & ultrawide bandgap semiconductor devices. His research expertise encompasses device processing, electrical-&-physical characterization, and device modeling. He has demonstrated bulk epitaxial growth methods to achieve high crystalline quality GaN and AlGaN films. Apart from nitride semiconductors, he has also demonstrated near-ideal and homogeneous Schottky diodes using β-Ga2O3 films grown using the Czochralski method. Over the past few years, he has demonstrated high brightness LEDs, self-powered photodiodes, high voltage Schottky diodes, and AlGaN/GaN HEMTs for RF applications. He has served as a committee member of the 2020 UV light emitters roadmap. He was invited to be a panelist in the power electronic device segment of the VAIBHAV Summit 2020 organized by the Prime Minister’s Office, Govt. of India. He is a recipient of the prestigious JSPS Fellowship, 2022. He has published more than 50 journal articles and holds visiting faculty status at the NC State University.