This Review highlights basic and transition metal conducting and semiconducting oxides. We discuss their material and electronic properties with an emphasis on the crystal, electronic, and band structures. The goal of this Review is to present a current compilation of material properties and to summarize possible uses and advantages in device applications. We discuss Ga2O3, Al2O3, In2O3, SnO2, ZnO, CdO, NiO, CuO, and Sc2O3. We outline the crystal structure of the oxides, and we present lattice parameters of the stable phases and a discussion of the metastable polymorphs. We highlight electrical properties such as bandgap energy, carrier mobility, effective carrier masses, dielectric constants, and electrical breakdown field. Based on literature availability, we review the temperature dependence of properties such as bandgap energy and carrier mobility among the oxides. Infrared and Raman modes are presented and discussed for each oxide providing insight into the phonon properties. The phonon properties also provide an explanation as to why some of the oxide parameters experience limitations due to phonon scattering such as carrier mobility. Thermal properties of interest include the coefficient of thermal expansion, Debye temperature, thermal diffusivity, specific heat, and thermal conductivity. Anisotropy is evident in the non-cubic oxides, and its impact on bandgap energy, carrier mobility, thermal conductivity, coefficient of thermal expansion, phonon modes, and carrier effective mass is discussed. Alloys, such as AlGaO, InGaO, (AlxInyGa1−x−y)2O3, ZnGa2O4, ITO, and ScGaO, were included where relevant as they have the potential to allow for the improvement and alteration of certain properties. This Review provides a fundamental material perspective on the application space of semiconducting oxide-based devices in a variety of electronic and optoelectronic applications.

Gallium oxide (β-Ga₂O₃) is an emerging semiconductor with relevant properties for power electronics, solar-blind photodetectors, and some sensor applications due to its ultra-wide bandgap and developing technology base for high quality, melt-based substrate growth and thick, low-doped homoepitaxial layers. Of critical importance for the commercialization of this potentially important material is understanding of doping mechanisms in the monoclinic lattice, where two types of Ga sites and three types of O sites have been identified. A critical literature review of doping and defects of the monoclinic β-phase of gallium oxide is provided in this work. Theoretical fundamentals of both donor and acceptor doping in Ga₂O₃ are reviewed. Advances in doping of epitaxial Ga₂O₃ with a focus on molecular beam epitaxy and ion implantation are critically examined. As doping is fundamentally related to defects, particularly in this material, a review of defect characterization by optical and electrical spectroscopic methods is provided as well. P-type doping, one of the fundamental challenges for Ga₂O₃, is discussed in terms of first-principles calculations and ion implantation of known acceptors such as Mg and N.

This letter demonstrates vertical Ga ₂ O ₃ Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) with a novel edge termination, the small-angle beveled field plate (SABFP), fabricated on thinned $\text{G}_{{2}}\text{O}_{{3}}$ substrates. Non-punch-though design is used for the drift region with a donor concentration of ${3}\sim {3.5} \times {10} ^{{16}}$ cm ⁻³ , rendering a device differential ON-resistance of $\sim 2~\text{m}\Omega ~\cdot $ cm ² . A new wet-etch technique is developed by using a bi-layer mask, which consists of spin-on-glass (SOG) and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposited (PECVD) SiO ₂ , to fabricate a very small bevel angle (∼ 1°) in the mesa and field plates. This SABFP structure facilitates the electric field spreading at device edges, rendering a breakdown voltage of 1100 V, a peak electric field of 3.5 MV/cm in Ga ₂ O ₃ at the Schottky contact edge, and an averaged electric field over 3.4 MV/cm underneath the contact. Our device demonstrates a Baliga’s figure of merit of 0.6 GW/cm ² , which is among the highest in all reported Ga ₂ O ₃ power devices and comparable to the state-of-the-art GaN SBDs. These results show the great potential of Ga ₂ O ₃ SBDs for future power applications.

Power semiconductor devices are fundamental drivers for advances in power electronics, the technology for electric energy conversion. Power devices based on wide-bandgap (WBG) and ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors allow for a smaller chip size, lower loss and higher frequency compared with their silicon (Si) counterparts, thus enabling a higher system efficiency and smaller form factor. Amongst the challenges for the development and deployment of WBG and UWBG devices is the efficient dissipation of heat, an unavoidable by-product of the higher power density. To mitigate the performance limitations and reliability issues caused by self-heating, thermal management is required at both device and package levels. Packaging in particular is a crucial milestone for the development of any power device technology; WBG and UWBG devices have both reached this milestone recently. This paper provides a timely review of the thermal management of WBG and UWBG power devices with an emphasis on packaged devices. Additionally, emerging UWBG devices hold good promise for high-temperature applications due to their low intrinsic carrier density and increased dopant ionization at elevated temperatures. The fulfillment of this promise in system applications, in conjunction with overcoming the thermal limitations of some UWBG materials, requires new thermal management and packaging technologies. To this end, we provide perspectives on the relevant challenges, potential solutions and research opportunities, highlighting the pressing needs for device–package electrothermal co-design and high-temperature packages that can withstand the high electric fields expected in UWBG devices.

This letter demonstrates vertical GaN junction barrier Schottky (JBS) rectifiers fabricated with novel ion implantation techniques. We used two different methods to form the lateral p-n grids below the Schottky contact: 1) Mg implantation into n-GaN to form p-wells and 2) Si implantation into p-GaN to form n-wells. Specific differential ON-resistances ( ${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ ) of 1.5–2.5 $\text{m}\Omega ~\cdot $ cm ² and 7–9 $\text{m}\Omega ~\cdot $ cm ² were obtained in the Mg-implanted and Si-implanted JBS rectifiers, respectively. A breakdown voltage of 500–600 V was achieved in both devices, with a leakage current at high reverse biases at least 100-fold lower than conventional vertical GaN Schottky barrier diodes. The impact of n-well and p-well widths on the ${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ and BV was investigated. Fast switching capability was also demonstrated. This letter shows the feasibility of forming patterned p-n junctions by novel ion implantation techniques, to enable high-performance vertical GaN power devices.