This three-year award supports U.S.-France cooperative research in microelectronics among Dimitris Pavlidis, University of Michigan, Frederique Ducroquet, National Institute for Applied Sciences (INSA), and S. K. Krawczyk of the Ecole Centrale in Lyon, France. The objective of the project is to study optimization, process control and reliability of high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). The basic heterostructures for HEMTs will be grown, designed, fabricated and electrically characterized at the University of Michigan. These samples will be further analyzed by various material characterization techniques developed at INSA and the Ecole Centrale in Lyon. The investigators will characterize the material under optimum growth conditions, analyze the process and defects induced by thermal stress. The U.S. investigator brings to this collaboration expertise in performance optimization of HEMTS and other electronic devices and the fabrication of novel HEMTs. This is complemented by French expertise in various characterization techniques, which include photo and electro-reflectance characterization. The results from the material analysis will advance understanding of the effects of growth conditions on material properties and the reliability of such structures. Such studies are important to the development of new semiconductor devices.
