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As the current requirements of power devices are moving towards high frequency, high efficiency and high-power density, Silicon-based devices are reaching its limits which are instigating the need to move towards new materials. Gallium Nitride (GaN) has the potential to meet the growing demands due to the wide band-gap nature which leads to various enhanced material properties like, higher operational temperature, smaller dimensions, faster operation and efficient performance. The metal contacts on semiconductors are essential as the interface properties affect the semiconductor performance and device operation. The low resistance ohmic contacts for n-GaN have been well established while most p-GaN devices have still high contact resistivity. Significant work has not been found that focuses on software-based modeling of the device to analyze the contact resistance and implement methods to reduce the contact resistivity. Understanding the interface physics in n-GaN devices using simulations can help in understanding the contacts on p-GaN and eventually reduce its metal contact resistivity. In this work, modeling of the metal-semiconductor interface along with the effect of a heavily doped layer under the metal contact is presented. The extent of reduction in contact resistivity due to different doping and thickness of n++ layer is presented with simulations. These results have been verified by the growth of device based on simulation results and reduction in contact resistivity has been observed. The effect of different TLM pattern along with different annealing conditions is presented in the work. / Master of Science

Gallium Oxide (Ga2O3) has emerged over the last decade as a new up-and-coming alternative to traditional wide bandgap semiconductors. It exists as five polymorphs (α-, β-, γ-, δ-, and ε-Ga2O3), of which β-Ga2O3 is the thermodynamically stable form, and the most extensively studied phase. β-Ga2O3 has a wide bandgap of ~4.8 eV and exhibits a superior figure-of-merit for power devices compared to other wide bandgap materials, such as SiC and GaN. These make β-Ga2O3 a promising candidate in a host of electronic and optoelectronic applications. Recent advances in β-Ga2O3 single crystals growth have also made inexpensive β-Ga2O3 single crystal grown from the melt a possibility in the near future. Despite the plethora of literature on β-Ga2O3-based devices, understanding of contacts to this material --- a device component that fundamentally determines device characteristics — remained lacking. For this research, ohmic and Schottky metal contacts to Sn-doped β-Ga2O3 (-201) single crystal substrates, unintentionally doped (UID) homoepitaxial β-Ga2O3 (010) on Sn-doped β-Ga2O3 grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), and UID heteroepitaxial β-Ga2O3 (-201) epitaxial layers on c-plane sapphire by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) were investigated. Each of the substrates was characterized for their structural, morphological, electrical, and optical properties, the results will be presented in the following document. Nine metals (Ti, In, Ag, Sn, W, Mo, Sc, Zn, and Zr) with low to moderate work functions were studied as possible ohmic contacts to β-Ga2O3. It was found that select metals displayed either ohmic (Ti and In) or pseudo-ohmic (Ag, Sn and Zr) behavior under certain conditions. However, the morphology was often a problem as many thin film metal contacts dewetted the substrate surface. Ti with a Au capping layer with post-metallization annealing treatment was the only consistently reliable ohmic contact to β-Ga2O3. It was concluded that metal work function is not a dominant factor in forming an ohmic contact to β-Ga2O3 and that limited interfacial reactions appear to play an important role. Prior to a systematic study of Schottky contacts to β-Ga2O3, a comparison of the effects of five different wet chemical surface treatments on the β-Ga2O3 Schottky diodes was made. It was established that a treatment with an organic solvent clean followed by HCl, H2O2 and a deionized water rinse following each step yielded the best results. Schottky diodes based on (-201) β-Ga2O3 substrates and (010) β-Ga2O3 homoepitaxial layers were formed using five different Schottky metals with moderate to high work functions: W, Cu, Ni, Ir, and Pt. Schottky barrier heights (SBHs) calculated from current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements of the five selected metals were typically in the range of 1.0 – 1.3 eV and 1.6 – 2.0 eV, respectively, and showed little dependence on the metal work function. Several diodes also displayed inhomogeneous Schottky barrier behavior at room temperature. The results indicate that bulk or near-surface defects and/or unpassivated surface states may have a more dominant effect on the electrical behavior of these diodes compared to the choice of Schottky metal and its work function. Lastly, working with collaborators at Structured Materials Industries (SMI) Inc., heteroepitaxial films of Ga2O3 were grown on c-plane sapphire (001) using a variety of vapor phase epitaxy methods, including MOVPE, and halide vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). The stable phase β-Ga2O3 was observed when grown using MOVPE technique, regardless of precursor flow rates, at temperatures ranging between 500 – 850 °C. With HVPE growth techniques, instead of the stable β-phase, we observed the growth of the metastable α- and ε-phases, often a combination of the two. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows the better lattice matched α-phase first growing semi-coherently on the c-plane sapphire substrate, followed by domain matched epitaxy of ε-Ga2O3 on top. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) revealed that epilayers forming the ε-phase contain higher concentrations of chlorine, which suggests that compressive stress due to Cl- impurities may play a role in the growth of ε-Ga2O3 despite it being less than thermodynamically favorable.

O presente trabalho reúne elementos para projeto de precipitadores eletrostáticos, com dados levantados de cinzas volantes provenientes da combustão de gases em caldeiras de carvão mineral. Os objetivos desta pesquisa são construir um dispositivo padronizado para medição da resistividade ôhmica de materiais, levantar dados de resistividade ôhmica das cinza volantes de carvão mineral utilizado no Brasil e, com estes dados, listar recomendações sobre cuidados no dimensionamento de precipitadores (cálculo da área de captação), quando este equipamento é posicionado após uma caldeira que queima o carvão mineral nacional. A metodologia utilizada foi baseada em norma americana ASME, em que o pó (material a ser testado) é colocado sobre eletrodos de descarga e de coleta, uma alta tensão elétrica é aplicada até atingir a tensão de ruptura elétrica e neste instante é medida a resistividade. A construção do experimento e procedimento de execução foram seguidos conforme esta norma. O material de teste foi coletado de precipitadores eletrostáticos existentes na região Sul do Brasil, onde o carvão mineral tem seu uso freqüente. Os resultados apresentaram baixos valores para resistividade da cinza volante nacional, se comparados com resultados de carvões de outros países. Sua variação em função da temperatura segue a tendência de cinza volantes de outros países, ou seja, aumento da resistividade ôhmica com o aumento da temperatura. Foram realizados também experimentos com material retirado de precipitadores eletrostáticos acoplados a caldeiras de biomassa, que forneceram valores de resistividade ainda menores do que os do carvão mineral nacional. O material de teste, composição química e processo de coleta foram totalmente caracterizados, disponibilizados e uma análise completa pôde ser realizada, fato inédito no Brasil. Esses resultados permitiram listar recomendações visando o projeto de precipitadores eletrostáticos acoplados a caldeiras que queimam carvão mineral nacional. / This report is a collection of elements to be used in the design of Electrostatic Precipitators, with experimental data of fly ashes from combustion gases of Mineral Coal Fired Boilers. The aims of this research are to construct a standard device to measure the ohmic resistivity of materials, to get data of ohmic resistivity of fly ashes from mineral coals used in Brazil and with this data, to list recommendations about the key points to size electrostatic precipitators (calculation of specific collection area), when this equipment is arranged after one boiler that burns Brazilian mineral coals. The method used was based on the ASME Standard, in which the fly ash (material to be tested) is put between the discharge and the collecting electrodes, a high electrical tension is applied until the electrical break down tension to be reached; at this moment, the resistivity is measured. The construction of this device and the experimental procedure were conducted according to this standard. The tested materials were collected from existing Electrostatic Precipitator of South of Brazil, where the mineral coal is commonly used. The results indicated low values of ohmic resistivity of the Brazilian fly ashes, if compared to results of coals from other countries. Its variation with the temperature has the same behavior of fly ashes from other countries, i.e., the ohmic resistivity increases when the temperature increases. It was also executed tests with particulate materials from electrostatic precipitator of biomass boiler whose ohmic resistivity is lower than the Brazilian mineral coal. The tested material, chemical composition, and collecting process were totally described, available and a full analysis can be executed; these data are inedita in Brazil. These results allow to list the recommendations to design Electrostatic Precipitators for Brazil Mineral Coal Fired Boilers.

Os processos de tratamento térmico por meio do aquecimento ôhmico revelam-se bastante promissores. A tecnologia de processamento de alimentos através do aquecimento ôhmico tem mostrado a obtenção de um produto final com características sensoriais e nutricionais superiores, quando comparada aos métodos convencionais (trocadores de calor ou banho de água). A principal vantagem atribuída ao aquecimento ôhmico é a habilidade de aquecer materiais rapidamente e de modo uniforme possibilitando desta forma a redução do abuso térmico aos produtos. A construção de um equipamento de aquecimento ôhmico foi realizada e seu funcionamento avaliado. Alguns pontos críticos para o funcionamento do equipamento foram encontrados e avaliados. Dentre os principais pontos críticos avaliados estão: o sistema de medição de temperatura e a distribuição dos campos elétricos. A avaliação destes pontos críticos possibilitou a realização de novo projeto de equipamento com o objetivo de otimizar a aplicação do aquecimento ôhmico. Realizou-se estudo comparativo da velocidade de inativação da fluorescência da proteína verde fluorescente (GFPuv) e da inativação da atividade da bacteriosina nisina, quando submetidas a aquecimento convencional (banho d\'água) e ôhmico, com o objetivo de avaliar a influencia da presença de campos elétricos. Leituras em λex = 394 nm, λem = 509 nm para excitação e emissão respectivamente para a GFPuv e avaliação por halo de inibição para a atividade da nisina foram realizadas periodicamente após tratamento térmico por metodologia convencional e ôhmica a temperaturas de 60º, 70º e 80ºC para GFPuv e de 70ºe 80ºC para a nisina. Os resultados indicam que para ambos, GFP e nisina, a presença de campos elétricos não influencia de modo significativo o comportamento quando comparada a tecnologia de aquecimento ôhmico e convencional. / Ohmic heating is an emerging technology that possesses many actual and future applications. One of the most promising applications for this technology is food processing. Ohmic heating has demonstrated to achieve better sensorial and nutritional values when compared to conventional heating (heat exchangers/water bath). The principal advantage of ohmic heating is the ability to heat materials rapidly and uniformly making possible to reduce thermal abuse to products. An ohmic heating equipment was constructed and evaluated. Critical functioning points were observed on the manufactured equipment and were evaluated. Among the observed critical points include the temperature measurement system and the distribution of the electric fields on the extension of the equipment\'s container. As a result of the evaluation of those critical points a new equipment project was created aiming to optimize the ohmic heating unit. The influence of the electric field over the fluorescence decay of the green fluorescent protein (GFPuv) and over nisin activity decay was evaluated. Fluorescence readings were performed at λex = 394 nm, λem = 509 nm for excitation and emission respectively for GFPuv and activity readings were performed by inhibition halo for nisin after several thermal treatment periods on ohmic and conventional heating. Samples were heated by conventional and ohmic heating at 60º, 70º and 80ºC for GFPuv and at 70º, 80º and 90ºC for nisin. The observed results indicate that the incidence of electric fields did not presented significative influence on the fluorescence decay of GFPuv or on the activity of nisin when ohmic heating was compared with conventional heating.

Os processos de tratamento térmico por meio do aquecimento ôhmico revelam-se bastante promissores. A tecnologia de processamento de alimentos através do aquecimento ôhmico tem mostrado a obtenção de um produto final com características sensoriais e nutricionais superiores, quando comparada aos métodos convencionais (trocadores de calor ou banho de água). A principal vantagem atribuída ao aquecimento ôhmico é a habilidade de aquecer materiais rapidamente e de modo uniforme possibilitando desta forma a redução do abuso térmico aos produtos. A construção de um equipamento de aquecimento ôhmico foi realizada e seu funcionamento avaliado. Alguns pontos críticos para o funcionamento do equipamento foram encontrados e avaliados. Dentre os principais pontos críticos avaliados estão: o sistema de medição de temperatura e a distribuição dos campos elétricos. A avaliação destes pontos críticos possibilitou a realização de novo projeto de equipamento com o objetivo de otimizar a aplicação do aquecimento ôhmico. Realizou-se estudo comparativo da velocidade de inativação da fluorescência da proteína verde fluorescente (GFPuv) e da inativação da atividade da bacteriosina nisina, quando submetidas a aquecimento convencional (banho d\'água) e ôhmico, com o objetivo de avaliar a influencia da presença de campos elétricos. Leituras em λex = 394 nm, λem = 509 nm para excitação e emissão respectivamente para a GFPuv e avaliação por halo de inibição para a atividade da nisina foram realizadas periodicamente após tratamento térmico por metodologia convencional e ôhmica a temperaturas de 60º, 70º e 80ºC para GFPuv e de 70ºe 80ºC para a nisina. Os resultados indicam que para ambos, GFP e nisina, a presença de campos elétricos não influencia de modo significativo o comportamento quando comparada a tecnologia de aquecimento ôhmico e convencional. / Ohmic heating is an emerging technology that possesses many actual and future applications. One of the most promising applications for this technology is food processing. Ohmic heating has demonstrated to achieve better sensorial and nutritional values when compared to conventional heating (heat exchangers/water bath). The principal advantage of ohmic heating is the ability to heat materials rapidly and uniformly making possible to reduce thermal abuse to products. An ohmic heating equipment was constructed and evaluated. Critical functioning points were observed on the manufactured equipment and were evaluated. Among the observed critical points include the temperature measurement system and the distribution of the electric fields on the extension of the equipment\'s container. As a result of the evaluation of those critical points a new equipment project was created aiming to optimize the ohmic heating unit. The influence of the electric field over the fluorescence decay of the green fluorescent protein (GFPuv) and over nisin activity decay was evaluated. Fluorescence readings were performed at λex = 394 nm, λem = 509 nm for excitation and emission respectively for GFPuv and activity readings were performed by inhibition halo for nisin after several thermal treatment periods on ohmic and conventional heating. Samples were heated by conventional and ohmic heating at 60º, 70º and 80ºC for GFPuv and at 70º, 80º and 90ºC for nisin. The observed results indicate that the incidence of electric fields did not presented significative influence on the fluorescence decay of GFPuv or on the activity of nisin when ohmic heating was compared with conventional heating.

MoS2, among many other transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), holds great promise for future applications in nano-electronics, opto-electronics and mechanical devices due to its ultra-thin nature, flexibility, sizable band-gap, and unique spin-valley coupled physics. However, there are two main challenges that hinder careful study of this material. Firstly, it is hard to achieve Ohmic contacts to mono-layer MoS2, particularly at low temperatures (T) and low carrier densities. Secondly, materials' low quality and impurities introduced during the fabrication significantly limit the electron mobility of mono- and few-layer MoS2 to be substantially below theoretically predicted limits, which has hampered efforts to observe its novel quantum transport behaviours. Traditional low work function metals doesn't necessary provide good electron injection to thin MoS2 due to metal oxidation, Fermi level pinning, etc. To address the first challenge, we tried multiple contact schemes and found that mono-layer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and cobalt (Co) provide robust Ohmic contact. The mono-layer spacer serves two advantageous purposes: it strongly interacts with the transition metal, reducing its work function by over 1 eV; and breaks the metal-TMDCs interaction to eliminate the interfacial states that cause Fermi level pinning. We measure a flat-band Schottky barrier of 16 meV, which makes thin tunnel barriers upon doping the channels, and thus achieve low-T contact resistance of 3 kohm.um at a carrier density of 5.3x10^12/cm^2. Similar to graphene, eliminating all potential sources of disorder and scattering is the key to achieving high performance in MoS2 devices. We developed a van der Waals heterostructure device platform where MoS2 layers are fully encapsulated within h-BN and electrically contacted in a multi-terminal geometry using gate-tunable graphene electrodes. The h-BN-encapsulation provides excellent protection from environmental factors, resulting in highly stable device performance, even at elevated temperatures. Both optical and electrical characterization confirms our high quality devices, including an ultra-clean interface, a record-high Hall mobility reaching 34,000 cm^2/Vs, and first observation of Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations. The development of Ohmic contact and fabrication of high quality devices are critical to MoS2 application and studying its intrinsic properties. Therefore, the progress made in this work will facilitate efforts to study novel physical phenomena of MoS2 that were not accessible before.

Electrical contacts to devices which pose low resistance continue to be of interest as the dimensions of devices decrease and nanotechnology demands better means of creating electrical access. Continued improvement in the performance of ohmic contacts requires techniques to better characterise and quantify the performance of such contacts. In order to study and estimate the resistance of such contacts or the resistance posed by the interface(s) in such contacts, accurate test structures and evaluation techniques need to be used. The resistance posed by an interface is quantified using its specific contact resistivity (SCR), which is denoted using ƒâc (units: £[cm2). Cross Kelvin resistor (CKR) test structures have been used for the measurement of low values of SCR. A simplified approach to this problem of SCR evaluation (developed previously at RMIT University) using the CKR test structures with varying contact sizes was used and during this work was shown to be accurate for the estimation of low values (less than10-8 £[cm2) of SCR. The silicides of interest in this study were titanium silicide (TiSi2) and nickel silicide (NiSi). These thin films are known for their low resistivity and low barrier heights to both n-type and p-type silicon. The research involved thin film formation and substantial materials characterisation of these thin films. The silicide thin films were formed by vacuum annealing metal thin films on silicon substrates. Silicide thin films formed from metal films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering and electron beam evaporation were compared. The composition, crystallographic orientation, and morphology of these thin films were studied using spectroscopy (AES, SIMS, RBS, in situ Raman spectroscopy), diffraction (Bragg-Brentano and glancing angle XRD, RHEED), and microscopy techniques (TEM, SEM, and AFM). TiSi2 and NiSi thin films were also found to be suitable for microsystems fabrication due to their ability to withstand wet etching of silicon using potassium hydroxide. The SCR of aluminium-titanium silicide ohmic contacts was evaluated to be as low as 6 x 10-10 ƒÇcm2, which is the lowest reported for any two- layer single-interface contact. Characterisation of ohmic contacts comprising of aluminium, nickel silicide, and doped silicon (with shallow implants) were also carried out using the same technique. SCR values as low as 5.0 x 10-9 ƒÇcm2 for contacts to antimony-doped silicon and 3.5 x 10-9 £[cm2 to boron-doped silicon were evaluated.

The main purpose of this thesis is to develop a model that can predict the temperature profile inside a frozen food sample during microwave tempering and infrared assisted microwave tempering processes. Another goal of the study is to compare the tempering time of frozen foods by using microwave, infrared assisted microwave, and ohmic heating methods. Frozen potato puree was used as the food sample for all studies. Three different microwave power levels (30%, 40%, and 50%) were used for microwave tempering studies. Three different microwave power levels (30%, 40%, and 50%) and three different infrared power levels (10%, 20%, and 30%) were combined for infrared assisted microwave tempering. As a control, tempering was done by keeping the sample at 4&deg / C. The increase in microwave power level and infrared power level reduced tempering time in infrared assisted microwave tempering. For the ohmic tempering studies, three different frequencies (10 kHz, 20 kHz, and 30 kHz) and three different salt contents (0.50%, 0.75%, and 1.00%) were used. The increase in frequency of ohmic heating and salt content also decreased tempering times. Microwave tempering and infrared assisted microwave tempering of frozen foods were simulated by using finite difference method. For this purpose, the change in heat capacity and the dielectric properties of frozen potato puree with respect to time were measured. The temperature distribution inside the sample was modeled, and the predicted results were compared with experimental results. The predicted temperatures showed good agreement with the experimental data (r2 &gt / 0.985). It was possible to decrease tempering times by about 75%, 90%, and 95% using ohmic, microwave, and infrared assisted microwave tempering methods, respectively as compared to control.

<p>As a power device material, SiC has gained remarkable attention to its high thermal conductivity and high breakdown electric field. SiC bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) are interesting for applications as power switch for 600 V-1200 V applications. The SiC BJT has potential for very low specific on-resistances and this together with high temperature operation makes it very suitable for applications with high power densities. One disadvantage of the BJT compared with MOSFETs and Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) is that the BJT requires a more complex drive circuit with higher power capability. For the SiC BJT to become competitive with field effect transistors, it is important to achieve high current gains to reduce the power required by the drive circuit. Although much progress in SiC BJTs has been made, SiC BJTs still have low common emitter current gain typically in the range 10-50. In this work, a record high current gain exceeding 60 has been demonstrated for a SiC BJT with a breakdown voltage of 1100 V. This result is attributed to an optimized device design, a stable device process and state-of-the-art epitaxial base and emitter layers.</p><p>A new technique to fabricate the extrinsic base using epitaxial regrowth of the extrinsic base layer was proposed. This technique allows fabrication of the highly doped region of the extrinsic base a few hundred nanometers from the intrinsic region. An important factor that made removal of the regrowth difficult was that epitaxial growth of very highly doped layers has a faster lateral than vertical growth rate and the thickness of the p+ layer therefore has a maximum close to the base-emitter sidewall. A remaining p+ regrowth spacer at the edge of the base-emitter junction is proposed to explain the low current gain.</p><p>Under high power operation, the SiC BJTs were strongly influenced by self-heating, which significantly limits the performance of device. The DC I-V characteristics of 4H-SiC BJTs have also been studied in the temperature range 25 °C to 300 °C. The DC current gain at 300 °C decreased 56 % compared to its value at 25 °C. Selfheating effects were quantified by extracting the junction temperature from DC measurements.</p><p>To form good ohmic contacts to both n-type and p-type SiC using the same metal is one important challenge for simplifying SiC Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) fabrication. Ohmic contact formation in the SiC BJT process was investigated using sputter deposition of titanium tungsten to both n-type and p-type followed by annealing at 950 oC. The contacts were characterized with linear transmission line method (LTLM) structures. The n+ emitter structure and the p+ base structure contact resistivity after 30 min annealing was 1.4 x 10-4 Ωcm2 and 3.7 x 10-4 Ωcm2, respectively. Results from high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), suggest that diffusion of Si and C atoms into the TiW layer and a reaction at the interface forming (Ti,W)C1-x are key factors for formation of ohmic contacts.</p>