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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 February 2016
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.