Solving the latest semiconductor difficulties: cooling

Gallium Nitride (GaN) has recently been touted as a highly effectively replacement for silicon in high power transistor applications, but overheating of these devices remains a severe limitation. University of California, Riverside, researchers published results detailing a technique to significantly improve heat dissipation in GaN-based devices. The team, led by Alexander Balandin, improves heat dissipation by including layers of graphene in the GaN semiconductor construction. Graphene is an excellent conductor of heat, and the result is high-efficiency semiconductor devices that do not have the same trouble with overheating and their predecessors. "This represents a transformative change in thermal management," Balandin said.