A case study of the use of reflections within the Applied physics and electrical engineering program at Linköping University is presented. Reflections have been used for several years and they are done at four stages in the program, in terms of reflections at the end of the Introductory course in year one, design-implement experiences in year three and five, and a reflection document that is the last component of the Master’s thesis. In the first three stages a project model is used to support the planning and execution of the project, and in the project model the project work ends with a reflection. In the reflection document connected to the Master’s thesis the student reflects upon both the thesis work itself and the entire education program, according to the sections and subsections of the CDIO Syllabus. The paper describes how the reflections are integrated in the program. Experiences from student perspective are collected in a small-scale study via interviews with students from year one and year five. 

SiC multilayer coatings were deposited via thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using silicon tetrachloride (SiCl₄) and various hydrocarbons under identical growth conditions, i.e. at 1100 °C and 10 kPa. The coatings consisted of layers whose preferred growth orientation alternated between random and highly 〈111〉-oriented. The randomly oriented layers were prepared with either methane (CH₄) or ethylene (C₂H₄) as carbon precursor, whereas the highly 〈111〉-oriented layers were grown utilizing toluene (C₇H₈) as carbon precursor. In this work, we demonstrated how to fabricate multilayer coatings with different growth orientations by merely switching between hydrocarbons. Moreover, the success in depositing multilayer coatings on both flat and structured graphite substrates has strengthened the assumption proposed in our previous study that the growth of highly 〈111〉-oriented SiC coatings using C₇H₈ was primarily driven by chemical surface reactions.

Indium oxide (In2O3) is an important transparent conducting material widely used in optoelectronic applications. Herein, we study the deposition of In2O3 by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) using our recently reported indium(iii) triazenide precursor and H2O. A temperature interval with self-limiting growth was found between similar to 270 and 385 degrees C with a growth per cycle of similar to 1.0 angstrom. The deposited films were polycrystalline cubic In2O3 with In : O ratios of 1 : 1.2, and low levels of C and no detectable N impurities. The transmittance of the films was found to be >70% in visible light and the resistivity was found to be 0.2 m omega cm. The high growth rates, low impurities, high optical transmittance, and low resistivity of these films give promise to this process being used for ALD of In2O3 films for future microelectronic displays.

Gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor material can become semi-insulating when doping with carbon. Semi-insulating buffer layers are utilized to prevent leakage currents in GaN high power devices. Carbon is inherently present during chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of GaN from the use of trimethyl gallium (TMGa) as precursor. TMGa decomposes in the gas phase, releasing its methyl groups, which could act as carbon source for doping. It is previously known that the carbon doping levels can be controlled by tuning the CVD process parameters, such as temperature, pressure and precursor flow rates. However, the mechanism for carbon incorporation from TMGa is not yet understood. In this paper, a model for predicting carbon incorporation from TMGa in GaN layers grown by CVD is proposed. The model is based on ab initio quantum chemical calculations of molecular adsorption and reaction energies. Using Computational Fluid Dynamics, with a chemical kinetic model for decomposition of the precursors and reactions in the gas phase, to calculate gas phase compositions at realistic process conditions, together with the proposed model, we obtain good correlations with measurements, for both carbon doping concentrations and growth rates, when varying the inlet NH3/TMGa ratio. When varying temperature (800 – 1050°C), the model overpredicts carbon doping concentrations at the lower temperatures, but predicts growth rates well, and the agreement with measured carbon doping concentrations is good above 1000°C.

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) fabricated on a heterostructure grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition using analternative method of carbon (C) doping the buffer are characterized. C-doping is achieved by using propane as precursor, as compared to tuningthe growth process parameters to control C-incorporation from the gallium precursor. This approach allows for optimization of the GaN growthconditions without compromising material quality to achieve semi-insulating properties. The HEMTs are evaluated in terms of isolation anddispersion. Good isolation with OFF-state currents of 2 ' 10%6A/mm, breakdown fields of 70V/μm, and low drain induced barrier lowering of0.13mV/V are found. Dispersive effects are examined using pulsed current–voltage measurements. Current collapse and knee walkout effectslimit the maximum output power to 1.3W/mm. With further optimization of the C-doping profile and GaN material quality this method should offer aversatile approach to decrease dispersive effects in GaN HEMTs.

The impact of the sharpness of the AlGaN/GaN interface in high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) is investigated. Two structures, one with an optimized AlGaN/GaN interface and another with an unoptimized, were grown using hot-wall metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The structure with optimized sharpness of the interface shows electron mobility of 1760 cm(2)/V . s as compared with 1660 cm(2)/V . s for the nonoptimized interface. Gated Hall measurements indicate that the sharper interface maintains higher mobility when the electrons are close to the interface compared with the nonoptimized structure, indicating less scattering due to alloy disorder and interface roughness. HEMTs were processed and evaluated. The higher mobility manifests as lower parasitic resistance yielding a better dc and high-frequency performance. A small-signal equivalent model is extracted. The results indicate a lower electron penetration into the buffer in the optimized sample. Pulsed-IV measurements imply that the sharper interface provides less dispersive effects at large drain biases. We speculate that the mobility enhancement seen AlGaN/AlN/GaN structures compared with the AlGaN/GaN case is not only related to the larger conduction band offset but also due to a more welldefined interface minimizing scattering due to alloy disorder and interface roughness.

ZrB₂ films were deposited on 900 °C-preheated or non-preheated GaN(0001) surfaces by direct current magnetron sputtering from a compound target. Analytical transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy revealed a 0001 fiber textured ZrB₂ film growth following the formation of a ~2 nm thick amorphous BN layer onto the GaN(0001) at a substrate temperature of 900 °C. The amorphous BN layer remains when the substrate temperature is lowered to 500 °C or when the preheating step is removed from the process and results in the growth of polycrystalline ZrB₂ films. The ZrB₂ growth phenomena on GaN(0001) is compared to on 4H-SiC(0001), Si(111), and Al₂O₃(0001) substrates, which yield epitaxial film growth. The decomposition of the GaN surface during vacuum processing during BN interfacial layer formation is found to impede epitaxial growth of ZrB₂.

The creation of a semi insulating (SI) buffer layer in AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) devices is crucial for preventing a current path beneath the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). In this investigation, we evaluate the use of a gaseous carbon gas precursor, propane, for creating a SI GaN buffer layer in a HEMT structure. The carbon doped profile, using propane gas, is a two stepped profile with a high carbon doping (1.5 x 10(18) cm(-3)) epitaxial layer closest to the substrate and a lower doped layer (3 x 10(16) cm(-3)) closest to the 2DEG channel. Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry measurement shows a uniform incorporation versus depth, and no memory effect from carbon doping can be seen. The high carbon doping (1.5 x 10(18) cm(-3)) does not influence the surface morphology, and a roughness root-mean-square value of 0.43 nm is obtained from Atomic Force Microscopy. High resolution X-ray diffraction measurements show very sharp peaks and no structural degradation can be seen related to the heavy carbon doped layer. HEMTs are fabricated and show an extremely low drain induced barrier lowering value of 0.1 mV/V, demonstrating an excellent buffer isolation. The carbon doped GaN buffer layer using propane gas is compared to samples using carbon from the trimethylgallium molecule, showing equally low leakage currents, demonstrating the capability of growing highly resistive buffer layers using a gaseous carbon source. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN)/GaN high-electron mobility transistor performance is to a large extent affected by the buffer design, which, in this paper, is varied using different levels of carbon incorporation. Three epitaxial structures have been fabricated: 1) two with uniform carbon doping profile but different carbon concentration and 2) one with a stepped doping profile. The epitaxial structures have been grown on 4H-SiC using hot-wall metal-organic chemical vapor deposition with residual carbon doping. The leakage currents in OFF-state at 10 V drain voltage were in the same order of magnitude (10^-4 A/mm) for the high-doped and stepped-doped buffer. The high-doped material had a current collapse (CC) of 78.8% compared with 16.1% for the stepped-doped material under dynamic I-V conditions. The low-doped material had low CC (5.2%) but poor buffer isolation. Trap characterization revealed that the high-doped material had two trap levels at 0.15 and 0.59 eV, and the low-doped material had one trap level at 0.59 eV.

The creation of a semi-insulating (SI) buffer layer in AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices is crucial for preventing a current path beneath the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Here we evaluate the use of a carbon precursor, propane, for creating a SI GaN buffer layer. The carbon doping profile obtained from SIMS measurement shows a very uniform incorporation versus depth and no significant memory effect from carbon doping is seen, allowing for the creation of a very abrupt profile. The high carbon doping (1.5×1018 cm-3) does not influence the surface morphology. HRXRD ω rocking curve showed a FWHM of 200 arcsec of the (0002) and 261 arcsec for (10-12) reflection of the GaN, respectively. HEMT devices were processed on the epitaxial layers. An extremely low drain induced barrier lowering value of 0.1 mV/V was measured for a HEMT with a gate length of 0.2 𝜇m. This demonstrates the capability of growing a highly resistive buffer layer using intentional carbon doping.