Mixed-size diamond seeding for low-thermal-barrier growth of CVD diamond onto GaN and AlN

We report a method of growing a diamond layer via chemical vapour deposition (CVD) utilizing a mixture of microdiamond and nanodiamond seeding to give a low effective thermal boundary resistance (TBR _eff) for heat-spreading applications in high-frequency, high-power electronic devices. CVD diamond was deposited onto thin layers of both GaN and AlN on Si substrates, comparing conventional nanodiamond seeding with a two-step process involving sequential seeding with microdiamond then nanodiamond. Thermal properties were determined using transient thermoreflectance (TTR), and the samples were also analysed with SEM and X-ray tomography. While diamond growth directly onto GaN proved to be unsuccessful due to poor adhesion, films grown on AlN were adherent and robust. The two-step mixed-seeding method gave TBR _eff values < 6 m ² K GW ⁻¹ that were 30 times smaller than for films grown under identical conditions but using nanodiamond seeding alone. Such remarkably low thermal barriers obtained with the mixed-seeding process offer a promising route for fabrication of high-power GaN HEMTs using diamond as a heat spreader with an AlN interlayer.