Computational and experimental study of GaN chemical vapor deposition reactor

Gallium Nitride is an important semiconductor that many industries use for consumer products such as RF application for celltowers, LED lighting, and HEMTs for power conversion in EV industry. It's the next generation of semiconductor that will be replacing silicon. To produce GaN, many uses the technique called Chemical Vapor Deposition or CVD. It's a technique that let gaseous chemicals to react with one another and deposit molecule onto a substrate. As more molecules deposit, it grows into a crystalline structure known as thin film semiconductor. As the demand for high-powered and high-efficiency electronics increases, it's important to look at the quality and characteristics of these films, such as the growth rate, and uniformity. A computational study can be used to model and optimize the CVD reactor to yield favorable operating conditions. With the aid of experimental data, computational CVD study will grant us very important information to help bring down the cost of GaN based semiconductors. A 3D non-reactive model was used initially for flow and temperature study. Then it evolves into a full chemistry model where the growth rate and the uniformity are part of the study. The results are expected to lead to a better understanding of the basic mechanisms for predicting and optimizing the operating conditions. Commercially software was used, with modifications, and the results obtained are discussed in details.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Sun Won