The strong piezo-electric coefficeint in the Nitrides is making new
devices possible.  Here is a new program to try to capitalized on this.

Please pass this call for proposals to any interested or potentially
interested proposer.
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Dual Use program announcement.  See the ONR home page \ business
opportunities\ current BAAs \Dual Use Applications Page for further
details.

4. Topic Area: PIEZO-ELECTRONIC MICROWAVE POWER COMPONENTS, CIRCUITS AND
SYSTEMS

All current electronics rely on dopant atoms for electrical
conductivity. Such dopants scatter carriers, and thus reduce optimum
conductivity. This topic area will exploit very strong Piezo-electric
(PE) coefficients of gallium nitride based semiconductors to develop
(largely) dopant-free devices. This may be accomplished by design of
strained layer lattice structures into FETs, HEMTs, Bipolar transistors,
Thyristors , lasers, detectors and modulators. Future Microwave power
and low frequency switching applications for DOD's multifunction and
more electric vehicle/platform' initiatives will depend entirely on GaN
and SiC semiconductors. Significant improvements in noise, power and
bandwidth of these systems are possible with Piezo-electronics' based
design. 10dB improvements in gain, noise, power, and bandwidth are
feasible, once PE effects are fully understood, and adopted in optimized
devices. Nitride semiconductor based bipolar transistors are currently
not possible because of acceptor binding energies. Hole gas generation
by PE strain-field design, will allow bipolar transistor development
using PE base regions wherein impurity scattering and recombination are
virtually non-existent. This effort may impact positively the
performance of all wide gap semiconductor devices. There is little
retooling necessitated in terms of processing, packaging, etc. - only
device and materials redesign are required. Therefore, the program will
include a major theoretical and modeling component. It will not require
a major capital investment for those organizations already processing
wide gap materials, but will lead to massive commercial gains, and an
increased US DoD strategies electronics lead.

TECHNICAL POC: Colin E.C. Wood, ONR 312, (703) 696-4218, fax (703)
692-2611,
email: woodc@onr.navy.mil

Estimated government funding contribution: $900K