Sukwon Choi

About

Sukwon Choi is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University. His research areas include energy systems and thermal/fluid sciences, with specific interests in micro/nanoscale thermal characterization, multi-physics analysis of microelectronics and MEMS, wide bandgap and ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor devices, thermal management of microelectronics, and semiconductor device reliability. His work focuses on understanding and improving thermal boundary conductance, device cooling, and the thermal properties of various materials used in electronic and power devices. Professor Choi has contributed to advancing knowledge in the thermal analysis and design of high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs), GaN/SiC interfaces, and other wide bandgap semiconductor devices. His research involves experimental and theoretical approaches to optimize thermal performance, enhance device reliability, and develop innovative cooling solutions for microelectronics. His publications reflect a strong emphasis on thermal transport phenomena, interface conductance, and the development of materials and structures for improved thermal management in electronic systems.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Optoelectronics
• Electrical engineering
• Composite material
• Nanotechnology
• Condensed matter physics
• Engineering
• Thermodynamics
• Engineering physics
• Physics

Selected publications

• β-Gallium oxide power electronics

  APL Materials · 2022 · 491 citations

  Gallium Oxide has undergone rapid technological maturation over the last decade, pushing it to the forefront of ultra-wide band gap semiconductor technologies. Maximizing the potential for a new semiconductor system requires a concerted effort by the community to address technical barriers which limit performance. Due to the favorable intrinsic material properties of gallium oxide, namely, critical field strength, widely tunable conductivity, mobility, and melt-based bulk growth, the major targe…

  DOI

• Ga₂O₃-on-SiC Composite Wafer for Thermal Management of Ultrawide Bandgap Electronics

  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 2021 · 97 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor fabricated on the composite substrate. This novel power transistor topology resulted in a ∼4.3× reduction in the junction-to-package device thermal resistance. Furthermore, an even more pronounced cooling effect is demonstrated when the composite wafer is implemented into the device design of practical multifinger devices. These innovations in device-level thermal management give promise to the full exploitation of the promising benefits of the UWBG ma…

  DOI

• Nanoscale electro-thermal interactions in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors

  Journal of Applied Physics · 2020 · 93 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Self-heating in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) negatively impacts device performance and reliability. Under nominal operating conditions, a hot-spot in the device channel develops under the drain side corner of the gate due to a concentration of volumetric heat generation leading to nonequilibrium carrier interactions and non-Fourier heat conduction. These subcontinuum effects obscure identification of the most salient processes impacting heating. In response, we examine se…

  DOI

• Ultra-Wide Band Gap Ga₂O₃-on-SiC MOSFETs

  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 2023-01-26 · 69 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Ultra-wide band gap semiconductor devices based on β-phase gallium oxide (Ga2O3) offer the potential to achieve higher switching performance and efficiency and lower manufacturing cost than that of today’s wide band gap power electronics. However, the most critical challenge to the commercialization of Ga2O3 electronics is overheating, which impacts the device performance and reliability. We fabricated a Ga2O3/4H–SiC composite wafer using a fusion-bonding method. A low-temperature (≤600 °C) epit…

  PublisherDOI

• Transient Thermal Management of a β-Ga₂O₃ MOSFET Using a Double-Side Diamond Cooling Approach

  IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices · 2023-02-22 · 28 citations

  articleSenior author

  <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> -phase gallium oxide ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\beta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> -Ga2O3) has drawn significant attention due to its large critical electric field strength and the availability of low-cost high-quali…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• FuSe-TG: Electro-Thermal Co-Design Center for Ultra-Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Devices

  NSF · $450k · 2023–2025

• GOALI: An Experimental Study of Electric Field Driven Non-Fourier Thermal Transport in High Power Electronic Devices

  NSF · $350k · 2020–2023

Frequent coauthors

• Samuel Graham

  University of Maryland, College Park

  73 shared

• Bikramjit Chatterjee

  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  56 shared

• Eric R. Heller

  United States Air Force Research Laboratory

  54 shared

• James Spencer Lundh

  United States Naval Research Laboratory

  54 shared

• Yiwen Song

  Pennsylvania State University

  46 shared

• Srabanti Chowdhury

  Stanford University

  40 shared

• James Dallas

  Toyota Research Institute

  38 shared

• Marko J. Tadjer

  United States Naval Research Laboratory

  37 shared

Labs

• PSMES BoardPI

  Organization and Board

Education

• Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  2013

• M.S., Automotive Engineering

  Hanyang University

  2007

• B.S., Mechanical Engineering

  Hanyang University

  2005

Similar researchers at Pennsylvania State University

• Satadru Deyh-33
• Mary Freckerh-32
• Daniel Cortesh-24