To fully exploit the advantages of GaN for electronic devices, a critical electric field that approaches its theoretical value (3 MV/cm) is desirable but has not yet been achieved. It is necessary to explore a new approach toward the intrinsic limits of GaN electronics from the perspective of epitaxial growth. By using a novel two-dimensional growth mode benefiting from our high-temperature AlN buffer technology, which is different from the classic two-step growth approach, our high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) demonstrate an extremely high breakdown field of 2.5 MV/cm approaching the theoretical limit of GaN and an extremely low off-state buffer leakage of 1 nA/mm at a bias of up to 1000 V. Furthermore, our HEMTs also exhibit an excellent figure-of-merit (V br 2/R on,sp) of 5.13 × 108 V2/Ω·cm2.

We have designed and then grown a simple structure for high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) on silicon, where as usual two transitional layers of AlxGa1−xN (x = 0.35, x = 0.17) have been used in order to engineer the induced strain as a result of the large lattice mismatch and large thermal expansion coefficient difference between GaN and silicon. Detailed x-ray reciprocal space mapping (RSM) measurements have been taken in order to study the strain, along with cross-section scanning electron microscope (SEM) images and x-ray diffraction (XRD) curve measurements. It has been found that it is critical to achieve a crack-free GaN HEMT epi-wafer with high crystal quality by obtaining a high quality AlN buffer, and then tuning the proper thickness and aluminium composition of the two transitional AlxGa1−xN layers. Finally, HEMTs with high performance that are fabricated on the epi-wafer have been demonstrated to confirm the success of our strain engineering and above analysis.

This paper reports a monolithic integration of GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) and green light-emitting diode (LED), where the circular HEMT is surrounded by a ring-shaped LED and two devices are seamlessly interconnected by the LED's n-GaN layer and the HEMT's two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) channel. By adopting such a novel circular layout design, the green HEMT-LED shows a controllable and uniform green light emission at 507 nm by simply tuning its gate voltage. This enables a uniform, controllable green LED light source, serving as an essential element in the red-green-blue (RGB) LED solution for a wide range of applications, such as tunable-spectrum white LED illumination, multichannel visible light communication with wavelength division multiplexing, RGB-based full-color LED displays, and optogenetics.

Heavy silicon-doping in GaN generally causes a rough surface and saturated conductivity, while heavily silicon-doped n++-AlGaN with ≤5% aluminum can maintain an atomically flat surface and exhibit enhanced conductivity. Given this major advantage, we propose using multiple pairs of heavily silicon-doped n++-Al0.01Ga0.99N and undoped GaN instead of widely used multiple pairs of heavily silicon-doped n++-GaN and undoped GaN for the fabrication of a lattice-matched distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) by using an electrochemical (EC) etching technique, where the lattice mismatch between Al0.01Ga0.99N and GaN can be safely ignored. By means of using the EC etching technique, the n++-layers can be converted into nanoporous (NP) layers whilst the undoped GaN remains intact, leading to a significantly high contrast in refractive index between NP-layer and undoped GaN and thus forming a DBR. Our work demonstrates that the NP-Al0.01Ga0.99N/undoped GaN-based DBR exhibits a much smoother surface, enhanced reflectivity and a wider stopband than the NP-GaN/undoped GaN-based DBR. Furthermore, the NP-Al0.01Ga0.99N/undoped GaN-based DBR sample with a large size (up to 1 mm in width) can be obtained, while a standard NP-GaN/undoped GaN-based DBR sample obtained is typically on a scale of a few 100 μm in width. Finally, a series of DBR structures with high performance, ranging from blue to dark yellow, was demonstrated by using multiple pairs of n++-Al0.01Ga0.99N and undoped GaN.

A systematic study has been conducted on a series of InGaN‐based micro‐light‐emitting diode (μLED) array samples which are achieved using the direct epitaxy overgrown approach on patterned templates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition technique, where the diameters of the μLEDs are 40, 5, and 3.6 μm, respectively. The selective epitaxy approach allows to circumvent the major limitations of conventional fabrication methods of μLEDs which unavoidably introduce dry‐etching‐induced damages. Electrical characterizations are performed on the selective epitaxy overgrown μLEDs as well as conventional μLEDs fabricated using a standard dry‐etching method. For the overgrown μLEDs, the leakage current per μLED is smaller than those of the conventionally mesa‐etched μLEDs. It is worth highlighting that the single 3.6 μm μLED exhibits as low as a leakage current of 14.1 nA at a bias of −5 V. Moreover, in terms of leakage current density, the overgrown μLEDs exhibit much smaller and more consistent leakage than their mesa‐etched counterparts. Operational voltage RC constants also show more favorable to the overgrown devices than the conventionally mesa‐etched μLEDs.