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Beta gallium oxide (β‐Ga2O3) has emerged as a highly promising semiconductor material with an ultrawide bandgap ranging from 4.5 to 4.9 eV for future applications in power electronics, optoelectronics, as well as gas and ultraviolet (UV) radiation sensors. Here, surface adsorption and air damping behavior of doubly clamped β‐Ga2O3 nanomechanical resonators are probed and systemically studied by measuring the resonance characteristics under different gas and pressure conditions. High responsivities of resonance to pressure are obtained by heating the devices up to 300 °C to induce an accelerated adsorption–desorption process. The initial surface conditions of the β‐Ga2O3 thin film play important roles in affecting the resonant behavior. UV ozone treatment proves effective in altering the initial surface conditions of β‐Ga2O3 nanosheets by eliminating physisorbed contaminants and filling oxygen vacancy defects residing on the surface, resulting in a consequential and discernible modification of the resonance behavior of β‐Ga2O3 nanomechanical resonators. The surface adsorption and desorption processes in β‐Ga2O3 demonstrate clear reversibility by exposing the UV treated β‐Ga2O3 to air. This study attains first‐hand information on how the surface conditions of β‐Ga2O3 affect its mechanical properties, and helps guide future development of transducers via β‐Ga2O3 nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) for pressure sensing applications, especially in harsh environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experimental demonstration of aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN)‐on‐cubic silicon carbide (SiC) heterostructure thin film micromachined resonant transducers operating in a high‐temperature environment up to 600 °C is reported. Macroscopic and microscopic vibrations are investigated through a combination of ultrasensitive laser interferometry techniques and Raman spectroscopy. An average linear temperature coefficient of resonance frequency (TCf) of <1 ppm °C−1 within the temperature range from room temperature to 200 °C, and an average linear TCf of −16 ppm °C−1 between 200 and 600 °C, from the fundamental‐mode resonance of AlScN/SiC circular diaphragm resonator with a thickness of 1.9 µm and diameter of 250 µm, is obtained. Higher‐order modes exhibit much larger TCf, which make them strong candidates as high‐temperature‐tolerant temperature sensors or ultraviolet detectors. Raman spectroscopy indicates that the turning points of the peak positions of the longitudinal optical phonon modes of both 3C‐SiC and AlScN occur in almost the same temperature region where the turnover point of TCf is observed, suggesting that the microscopic vibrations in the crystal lattice and the macroscopic oscillation of the diaphragm are naturally mediated by the residual strain inside the materials at varying temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gallium nitride (GaN) has attracted great attention as a structural material for advanced microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), thanks to its excellent ensemble of electrical and mechanical properties. Here, we report on studying the effects of ion radiation-induced displacement damage on resonant MEMS made of GaN film grown on aluminum nitride (AlN) buffer layer. We design and fabricate GaN/AlN heterostructure doubly-clamped microstring resonators with length $L \,\, =100$ , 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, and 700 $\mu \text{m}$ , and irradiate the devices with 440-keV Ar $^{+}$ ions, to probe the effects of ion radiation-induced displacement damage on the resonance behavior. The ion energy and range have been selected so that the ions would stop within the GaN layer, thus allowing diagnostics to show the effects of damage in the structure. The multimode resonance frequencies of the devices decrease significantly ($\vert \Delta f\vert /f >50$ %) with the increase of fluence beyond 1014 cm−2. According to scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging, the irradiated GaN/AlN resonators are visibly deformed at high fluence, where the amount of curvature increases monotonically with the fluence. The deformation of the structures can be ascribed to the change in both Young’s modulus and built-in stress resulting from ion radiation-induced displacement damage. The results extend the understanding of radiation-induced damage mechanisms in resonant MEMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the first experimental characterization and analysis of the thermal response and temperature coefficient of resonance frequency (TC ƒ) of gallium nitride/aluminum nitride (GaN/AlN) heterostructure micro string resonators, in a wide temperature range from −10 °C up to 325 °C. Thanks to its excellent electrical and mechanical properties and chemical inertness, GaN has recently stimulated growing interests in GaN microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for emerging high-power, high-temperature, and harsh-environment applications. GaN films on Si wafers often require AlN buffer layers, thus the residual tensile stress profile in the GaN epilayers and GaN/AlN hetero-layers can play a key role in affecting the MEMS specifications and performance. Here we design and fabricate GaN/AlN heterostructure micro string resonators with length L = 100, 200 and 300 μm to probe the stress and thermal effects on resonance behavior. All out-of-plane flexural modes show clear string behavior, and the multimode resonance frequencies downshift almost linearly with increasing temperature up to 325 °C. The linear temperature dependence and TC ƒ values of GaN/AlN heterostructure resonators can be directly employed for thermal sensing. Comparison among different devices indicates that higher tensile stress levels contribute to smaller TC ƒ values, suggesting strain engineering may be exploited for intentionally regulating the TC ƒ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]