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Near-Junction Microfluidic Cooling for Wide BandgapDevices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Avram Bar-Cohen
Affiliation:
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 675 N. Randolph Street, Arlington, VA 22203.
Joseph J. Maurer
Affiliation:
Booz Allen Hamilton, 3811 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 650, Arlington, VA 22203.
Abirami Sivananthan*
Affiliation:
Booz Allen Hamilton, 3811 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 650, Arlington, VA 22203.
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Abstract

GaN has emerged as the material of choice for advanced power amplifier devicesfor both industrial and defense applications but near-junction thermal barriersseverely limit the inherent capability of high-quality GaN materials. Recent“embedded cooling” efforts, funded by Defense AdvancedResearch Projects Agency Microsystems Technology Office (DARPA-MTO), havefocused on reduction of this near-junction thermal resistance, through the useof diamond substrates and efficient removal of the dissipated power withconvective and evaporative microfluidics. An overview of the accomplishments ofthe DARPA Near-Junction Thermal Transport (NJTT) program and recent results fromthe on-going DARPA Intra-Chip Embedded Cooling (ICECool) program are provided.It is shown that growth or bonding of diamond to GaN epitaxy has enabled a3-5× increase in power handling capability per transistor unit area,while use of microfluidic cooling has enabled heat fluxes of 30kW/cm2 at the transistor level and 1 kW/cm2 at thedie-level, for a 3-6× improvement in the total RF output power of GaNpower amplifiers. These demonstrations provide near-term validation of the largeimprovement in output power gained through embedded cooling and confirm thepotential for well above a 6× improvement in GaN power amplifier outputpower to the electrical, rather than thermal, limits of GaN.

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Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016 

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