Three-Sensor 3{\omega}-2{\omega} Method for the Simultaneous Measurement of Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Boundary Resistance in Film-on-Substrate Heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel three-sensor 3ω-2ω measurement technique that simultaneously determines the thermal conductivities of films and substrates, as well as the thermal boundary resistance, in heterostructures without reference samples.

Contribution

The paper presents a new experimental method capable of measuring multiple thermophysical properties of heterostructures simultaneously with broad applicability.

Findings

Successfully measured thermal conductivities of GaN, SiC, and Si substrates.

Accurately determined GaN/substrate thermal boundary resistances.

Results agree well with literature values.

Abstract

Solid heterostructures composed of substrates and epitaxial films are extensively used in advanced technologies, and their thermophysical properties fundamentally determine the performance, efficiency, reliability, and lifetime of the corresponding devices. However, an experimental method that is truly appropriate for the thermophysical property measurement of solid heterostructures is still lacking. To this end, a three-sensor 3{\omega}-2{\omega} method is proposed, which can simultaneously measure the thermal conductivities of the film and the substrate, along with the film-substrate thermal boundary resistance (TBR) in a single solid heterostructure without any reference samples, showing broad applicability for miscellaneous heterostructures with film thickness ranging from 100 nm to 10 {\mu}m. In this method, three parallel metal sensors with unequal width and spacing are fabricated on the sample surface, in which the two outer sensors are used as heaters, and the middle sensor is used as a detector. The respective 3{\omega} signals of the two heaters and 2{\omega} signal of the detector are measured, and then the thermophysical properties of the sample are fitted within 3D finite element simulations. To verify this method, two typical wide bandgap semiconductor heterojunctions, i.e., GaN on SiC (#SiC) and GaN on Si (#Si) with ~2.3 {\mu}m GaN epilayers, are measured. The thermal conductivity of the GaN film, the thermal conductivities of the SiC and Si substrates, and the GaN/substrate TBRs are derived, exhibiting good agreement with the reported values in the literature. The proposed method will provide a comprehensive solution for the thermophysical property measurements of various solid heterostructures.