Anhar Bhuiyan
University of Massachusetts-Lowell, MA·Engineering
Most electricity now passes through power electronics, the switches and converters that control how energy moves from source to device. Today these parts are mostly made of silicon, which is nearing its limits: it wastes energy as heat, and it struggles at very high voltages, in strong radiation and at high temperatures.
- Fields
Engineering
Materials Science
Physics
- Topics
gallium oxide
β-Ga2O3
ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Sep 2028
What they work on
- Establish a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) growth platform that produces thick, lightly silicon-doped β-Ga₂O₃ layers with high electron mobility and very few unwanted background charge carriers.
- Develop a plasma-free etching method that uses solid gallium inside the LPCVD reactor to carve deep trenches, fins and nanopillars in β-Ga₂O₃. Study how crystal orientation affects etch rate, surface smoothness and the distribution of dopant atoms.
- Fabricate vertical trench Schottky barrier diodes, which use a metal–semiconductor junction, and test them for high breakdown voltage, low on-resistance and low leakage. Link device performance to the growth and etching conditions.
- Grow n-type doped β-Ga₂O₃ by LPCVD and determine how the dopants affect current flow, charge compensation and susceptibility to radiation-induced defects.
- Deposit polycrystalline diamond by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition, with engineered interlayers that lower the resistance to heat flow, to pull heat out of gallium oxide devices.
- Build vertical diodes with p-n heterojunctions and high-permittivity dielectric field layers. Test their degradation under radiation and high temperature, using device simulations to guide the designs.
More about the research
Beta-gallium oxide (β-Ga₂O₃) is an emerging semiconductor with an ultra-wide bandgap, meaning it can withstand much stronger electric fields than silicon. That could allow smaller, lighter and more efficient high-voltage devices. Using it well is still difficult. Researchers need to grow clean crystals, shape them without damage, remove heat, and build devices that hold up in harsh conditions. The lab's two projects follow this path from crystal growth to working diodes, which are devices that let current flow in only one direction.
Why it matters
Power electronics handle a growing share of electricity in electric vehicles, smart grids, renewable energy, data centers and aerospace. Silicon parts in these systems waste energy and reach their limits at high voltage. Gallium oxide diodes could make power converters smaller, lighter and more efficient. Versions that tolerate radiation and remove heat well could power satellites, spacecraft, defense platforms and nuclear systems without heavy shielding.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Collaborative Research: Radiation-Tolerant and Thermally Managed High-Voltage Gallium Oxide Power Diodes for High-Power Space Electronics
NSF · Oct 2025 – Sep 2028
ERI: LPCVD-Based Growth and Etching of Gallium Oxide for High Aspect Ratio Vertical Trench Schottky Barrier Diodes
NSF · Oct 2025 – Sep 2027
Closest labs
Elaheh Ahmadi
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Engineering·Early-career
Demonstrate enhancement-mode β-Ga2O3 fin field-effect transistors with breakdown voltages beyond 3 kV, specific on-resistance under 1 milliohm-cm², and switching efficiency above 98% at 15 kHz.
Ariful Haque
Texas State University, TX·Materials Science
Grow uniform, delamination-free diamond films on gallium oxide (Ga2O3) by first forming an ultrathin quenched carbon (Q-carbon) interlayer through pulsed laser annealing.
Spyridon Pavlidis
North Carolina State University, NC·Engineering·Early-career
Extract impact ionization coefficients — the parameters governing avalanche breakdown — from avalanche photodiodes fabricated on native aluminum nitride substrates, to establish how large an electric field aluminum-rich AlGaN can support.
The school
University of Massachusetts-Lowell: 7 labs on PI Pages, $121M a year on research, 149 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.