Observation of ballistic-diffusive thermal transport in GaN transistors using thermoreflectance thermal imaging

To develop effective thermal management strategies for gallium-nitride (GaN) transistors, it is essential to accurately predict the device junction temperature. Since the width of the heat generation in the devices is comparable to phonon mean free paths (MFPs) of GaN, phonon ballistic transport exists and can significantly affect the heat transport process, which necessitates a thorough understanding of the influence of the phonon ballistic effects in GaN transistors. In this study, the ballistic-diffusive phonon transport in GaN-on-SiC devices is examined by measuring the hotspot temperature using the thermoreflectance thermal imaging (TTI) combined with the hybrid phonon Monte Carlo-diffusion simulations. A series of Au heaters are fabricated on the top of the GaN layer to quantitatively mimic the different heat source distributions during device operation. The experimental and simulation results show a good consistency and both indicate that the phonon ballistic effects can significantly increase the hotspot temperature. With the size of the heat source decreasing, the errors of Fourier’s law-based predictions increase, which emphasizes the necessity to carefully consider the phonon ballistic transport in device thermal simulations.