Advantages of GaAs | disadvantages of GaAs

This page covers advantages and disadvantages of GaAs. It mentions GaAs advantages or benefits and GaAs disadvantages or drawbacks.

What is GaAs?

Introduction:
• It is compound of two elements viz. Gallium and Arsenic.
• GaAs is III-V direct band-gap semiconductor having zinc blende type of crystal structure.
• GaAs has wide variety of applications including manufacturing of MMICs, MICs, LEDs, Laser diodes, optical windows, solar cells etc.
• It is also used as substrate material for epitaxial growth of other semiconductors such as aluminum gallium arsenide, indium gallium arsenide etc.
• It is direct gap semiconductor with energy gap of 1.43 eV.

Benefits or advantages of GaAs

Following are the benefits or advantages of GaAs:
➨It has very high electron mobility.
➨GaAs cells are relatively insensitive to heat compare to silicon cells. Hence it offers high thermal stability.
➨It has lower noise.
➨It operates over wide temperature range.
➨Due to its high efficiency and resistance to radiation; GaAs is widely used for space applications.

Drawbacks or disadvantages of GaAs

Following are the disadvantages of GaAs:
➨No natural oxide as in silicon i.e. it does not grow native oxide which is equivalent to SiO2.
➨The single crystal GaAs substrate has higher production cost.
➨GaAs wafers are more brittle compare to Silicon wafers.
➨Small size (about 4") ingots.
➨GaAs is made of mixture of two metals Ga (Gallium) and As (Arsenic). Gallium is rarer than gold and it is byproduct of other metals such as aluminium and zinc. Arsenic (As) is not rare but it is poisonous.



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