X-ray Topography Characterization of GaN Substrates Used for Power Electronic Devices

Gallium nitride (GaN) substrates grown by different methods were characterized by high-resolution x-ray diffraction and synchrotron x-ray topography. Using the monochromatic beam in the grazing incidence geometry, high-resolution x-ray topographs reveal the various dislocation types present. Dislocation contrasts were correlated with ray-tracing simulation results successfully so that the Burgers vectors of the dislocations could be determined. Ammonothermal-grown GaN substrate wafers show the best quality among all the wafers. These wafers, which are free of basal plane dislocations (BPDs) have threading mixed dislocations (TMDs) dominant among the threading dislocations (TDs). Images of patterned hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) GaN reveal a starkly heterogeneous distribution of dislocations with large areas containing low threading dislocation densities in between a grid of strain centers with higher threading dislocation densities and BPDs. The strain level of regular HVPE GaN substrates is very high, and the dislocation density is around 10⁵–10⁶ cm⁻², which is much higher than 10⁴ cm⁻² of ammonothermal samples and dislocation-free areas in the patterned HVPE samples.