Microwave and power electronics based on GaN enables the performance of systems and their safe operating area to be driven to 'extremes'. One of the major issues that then arises is thermal management. This includes heat transfer limitations across interfaces, however also the need of incorporating novel high thermal conductivity materials such as diamond. Thermal parameters of these novel device systems and their implications on the near junction temperature in the devices are not well known. The role of interfaces between the GaN transistor and the diamond substrate, and of the diamond thermal properties themselves near this interface are discussed, and novel thermal characterization approaches, such as enabling fast determination of the thermal resistance on the wafer level, as well as of lateral diamond thermal conductivity, are presented.
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