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WIDE BANDGAP
SEMICONDUCTOR ELECTRONICS
AND DEVICES
SELECTED TOPICS IN ELECTRONICS AND SYSTEMS
Editor-in-Chief: M. S. Shur ISSN: 1793-1274
Published*
Vol. 63: Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Electronics and Devices

eds. Uttam Singisetti, Towhidur Razzak and Yuewei Zhang
Vol. 62: High Performance Logic and Circuits for High-Speed Electronic Systems
eds. F. Jain, C. Broadbridge, M. Gherasimova and H. Tang
Vol. 61: High Performance Materials and Devices for High-Speed Electronic Systems
eds. F. Jain, C. Broadbridge, H. Tang and M. Gherasimova
Vol. 60: Microelectronics and Optoelectronics
The 25th Annual Symposium of Connecticut Microelectronics and Optoelectronics
Consortium (CMOC 2016)
eds. F. Jain, C. Broadbridge and H. Tang
Vol. 59: Scaling and Integration of High Speed Electronics and Optomechanical Systems
eds. Magnus Willander and Håkan Pettersson
Vol. 58: Fundamental and Applied Problems of Terahertz Devices and Technologies
Selected Papers from the Russia-Japan-USA-Europe Symposium (RJUSE-TeraTech
2016)
by Maxim Ryzhii, Akira Satou and Taiichi Otsuji
Vol. 57: Frontiers in Electronics
Selected Papers from the Workshop on Frontiers in Electronics 2015 (WOFE-15)
eds. Sorin Cristoloveanu and Michael S. Shur
Vol. 56: Fundamental & Applied Problems of Terahertz Devices and Technologies
Selected Papers from the Russia–Japan–USA Symposium (RJUS TeraTech-2014)
ed. Michael S. Shur
Advanced Modeling of Nanoscale Electron Devices
eds. Benjamin Iñiguez and Tor A. Fjeldly
Proceedings of the Workshop on Frontiers in Electronics 2009 (WOFE-2009)
*The complete list of the published volumes in the series can be found at
https://www.worldscientific.com/series/stes
Selected Topics in Electronics and Systems – Vol. 63
WIDE BANDGAP
SEMICONDUCTOR ELECTRONICS
AND DEVICES
Editors
Uttam Singisetti
University of Buffalo, USA
Towhidur Razzak
The Ohio State University, USA
Yuewei Zhang
University of California Santa Barbara, USA
Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Selected Topics in Electronics and Systems — Vol. 63

WIDE BANDGAP SEMICONDUCTOR ELECTRONICS AND DEVICES
Copyright © 2020 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from
the publisher.
For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the
Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this
case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher.
ISBN 978-981-121-647-3
For any available supplementary material, please visit
https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/11719#t=suppl
Printed in Singapore
Preface
With the dawn of Gallium Oxide (Ga2O3) and Aluminum Gallium

Nitride (AlGaN) electronics and the commercialization of Gallium
Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) based devices, the field of
wide bandgap materials and electronics has never been more vibrant
and exciting than it is now. Wide bandgap semiconductors have had
a strong presence in the research and development arena for many
years. Recently, the increasing demand for high efficiency power
electronics and high speed communication electronics, together with
the maturity of the synthesis and fabrication of wide bandgap
semiconductors, has catapulted wide bandgap electronics and
optoelectronics into the mainstream.
Wide bandgap semiconductors exhibit excellent material
properties, which can potentially enable power device operation at
higher efficiency, higher temperatures, voltages, and higher
switching speeds than current Si technology. GaN-based electronics
have already made a big impact in the performance of several
applications including RF cell phone base stations and military radar.
GaN and SiC based devices have also made significant contributions
in the reduction of worldwide energy consumption. On the other
hand, emergent materials like Ga2O3, an ultra-wide bandgap
semiconductor that can be grown from a melt using methods
including the Czochralski process, high Al-composition AlGaN, and
diamond hold great promise in the field of power electronics and
high-speed electronics by virtue of their high critical breakdown field
strengths and high electron saturation velocity. Thus, wide bandgap
electronics is a rapidly evolving area with research being actively
conducted worldwide. It is therefore timely for us to put forth this
volume as a platform to share the most up-to-date research in this
area.
We hope that this edited volume will serve as a useful reference
for researchers in this field — newcomers and experienced alike.
This book discusses a broad range of topics including fundamental
transport studies, growth of high-quality films, advanced materials
characterization, device modeling, high frequency, high voltage
electronic devices and optical devices written by the experts in their
respective fields. The topics covered in this volume span over a large
spectrum of wide bandgap materials including AlGaN, Ga2O3 and
diamond.
We would like to thank Prof. Michael Shur for his encouragement
to put together this edited volume in Wide Bandgap Semiconductor
Electronics and Devices as volume 63 in his book series on Selected
Topics in Electronics and Systems. Here, we would like to thank all
the contributing authors for the excellent chapters. We would also
like to thank all the reviewers for their diligent assessment of the
manuscripts. Last but not the least, we would like to express our
gratitude to the desk editors’ Dr. Ng Yan Hong and Ms. Nurul Affiah,
for tirelessly helping us with the preparation of this edited volume.
Editors
Uttam Singisetti (University at Buffalo)
Towhidur Razzak (The Ohio State University, Columbus)
Yuewei Zhang (University of California, Santa Barbara)
November, 2019
Contents
Preface
Substrate Effects in GaN-on-Silicon RF Device Technology

H. Chandrasekar
Gallium Oxide Field Effect Transistors — Establishing New Frontiers

of Power Switching and Radiation-Hard Electronics
M. H. Wong and M. Higashiwaki
High Efficiency AlN/GaN HEMTs for Q-Band Applications with an

Improved Thermal Dissipation
R. Kabouche, R. Pecheux, K. Harrouche, E. Okada, F. Medjdoub,
J. Derluyn, S. Degroote, M. Germain, F. Gucmann, C. Middleton,
J. W. Pomeroy and M. Kuball
Recent Progress in Gallium Oxide and Diamond Based High Power

and High-Frequency Electronics
M. N. Hasan, E. Swinnich and J.-H. Seo
Application of Atom Probe Tomography for Advancing GaN Based

Technology
O. G. Licata and B. Mazumder
β-(Al,Ga)2O3 for High Power Applications — A Review on Material

Growth and Device Fabrication
Z. Jian, K. Khan and E. Ahmadi
Opportunities and Challenges in MOCVD of β-Ga2O3 for Power
Electronic Devices
M. A. Mastro, J. K. Hite, C. R. Eddy, Jr., M. J. Tadjer, S. J. Pearton,
F. Ren and J. Kim
Theory of High Field Transport in β-Ga2O3

K. Ghosh and U. Singisetti
Ultra-Wide Bandgap AlxGa1-xN Channel Transistors

T. Razzak, S. Rajan and A. Armstrong
On the Progress Made in GaN Vertical Device Technology

D. Ji and S. Chowdhury
Modeling and Simulation of Quasi-Ballistic III-Nitride Transistors for

RF and Digital Applications
K. Li and S. Rakheja
Recent Progress in III-Nitride Tunnel Junction-Based Optoelectronics

Z. Jamal-Eddine, Y. Zhang and S. Rajan
Substrate Effects in GaN-on-Silicon RF Device
Technology
Hareesh Chandrasekar
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State University, 2015 Neil
Avenue, 205 Dreese Labs, Columbus OH 43210, USA
[email protected]
The influence of the semiconducting Si substrate on the performance of GaN-on-Si

RF technology is reviewed. Firstly, the formation of a parasitic conduction channel at
the substrate-epitaxy interface is discussed in terms of its physical mechanism and
its influence on RF loss, followed by schemes to minimize this effect. Secondly, it is
shown that the presence of the parallel channel serves to backbias the III-nitride
epitaxial stack and lead to current collapse even on the highly-resistive Si substrates
used for RF device fabrication, analogous to GaN-on-doped Si power devices.
Strategies to mitigate this issue are also presented and critically compared. Thirdly,
thermal generation of carriers in Si at elevated operating temperatures leading to
increased substrate loss is quantified, also followed by a discussion of possible
techniques to reduce its influence on RF loss.
Keywords: GaN devices; RF loss; parasitic channel; highly-resistive Si substrate;

dielectric loss; GaN-on-Silicon; temperature-dependent loss; back-biasing, current
collapse.
1. Introduction
Gallium Nitride high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are
currently the mainstream RF technology of choice for discrete and
MMIC-based high-power, high-frequency power amplifiers in a range
of applications ranging from radars, CATVs, and satellite
communications, to wireless broadband in the 4G and the up-and-
coming 5G spectrums [1–3]. Despite the stellar performance of GaN
devices on silicon carbide (SiC) substrates [1], the inherently high
cost of this technology due to the limited areas and high starting
substrate costs, have spurred the development of GaN devices on
alternate, more inexpensive substrates in order to achieve cost-
competitiveness with existing Si LDMOS technology for sub-3.6 GHz
power amplifiers and for future applications at higher frequency
bands. Silicon (111) has been widely used as a substrate for GaN
growth despite the multifarious challenges involved in obtaining
good quality III-nitride films such as the very large lattice (17%) and
thermal mismatch which in turn leads to higher dislocation densities
and film cracking [4–6]. These challenges have been successfully
addressed by a variety of stress management schemes and present
day epitaxy on Si is of comparable quality and repeatability to that
on SiC substrates albeit with a higher complexity of the epitaxial
process [6–9]. Nevertheless, the large size of Si wafers (up to 12"
diameter currently), their ultra-low cost, and possibility of co-
processing in existing CMOS foundries promises to make GaN-on-Si
devices the cost-effective gallium nitride solution for power
amplification and power electronic applications. Indeed the bulk of
R&D efforts in GaN power electronics has focused on material grown
on Si substrates in view of the above advantages [10, 11].
Although the development of GaN-on-Si HEMTs for RF
applications far predates that for power electronics [12–15], this
technology is becoming more mainstream thanks to its adoption
currently in wireless broadband applications, and device & circuit
level metrics of reliable GaN-on-Si devices comparable to GaN-on-SiC
have been reported in literature [12, 16–21]. The continued
development of GaN-on-Si devices goes hand in hand with advances
in hetero-epitaxy in terms of defect reduction and stress
management schemes, maturity of CMOS-compatible process flows
for device fabrication, and informed device design and modeling
based on accurate device characterization data – both electrical and
thermal – as well as reliability implications. Such an interplay
between device design-growth-processing-characterization is key to
realizing the full potential of this technology.
In this context, it is important to thoroughly understand the role
of the Si substrate itself on the intrinsic performance of GaN-on-Si
RF electronics from a device standpoint. Here we review recent work
on three issues stemming from the use of semiconducting Si as the
substrate of choice for GaN RF devices. Firstly, the formation of a
parasitic/parallel conduction channel at the Si-epitaxy interface is
discussed in terms of the physical mechanisms involved and its
effect on RF losses, with solutions to address the same. Secondly,
we discuss the increased susceptibility of GaN-on-HR-Si HEMTs to
dispersion/trapping effects in the GaN buffer due to the presence of
such a parallel channel and small amounts of leakage through the
substrate backplane. We will then briefly present and evaluate
approaches to minimize such buffer-induced current collapse for
GaN-on-Si devices. Lastly, thermal generation of carriers in the
semiconducting Si substrates, either due to heat flow from the active
device or elevated ambient operating temperatures is considered.
This causes a drop in the resistivity of the highly-resistive Si
substrates (HR-Si) used for GaN devices, leading to RF substrate
losses which are quantified, and we conclude with presenting
approaches to minimize this effect.
2. Parasitic Channel Formation and RF Loss in

GaN-on-Si Technology
2.1. Physical Origin of Parasitic Channel
Formation
The formation of a parasitic channel, i.e. a conductive
interfacial/near-interfacial layer at the Si/III-nitride epitaxy interface
giving rise to parasitic loss effects in GaN-on-Si active devices and
passives has been well documented at this point. Apart from
increased losses/parasitic loading effects for RF devices, the
presence of such a parallel channel has also been attributed to be
the cause of the high vertical leakage and pre-mature breakdown of
GaN-on-Si power devices [22–27]. However, the mechanisms
involved in the formation of such a parasitic channel are multifarious
and complex with published reports offering differing explanations of
its origin. Figure 1 attempts to pictorially summarize the various
factors that could potentially contribute to the formation of such a
parasitic/parallel channel.
Fig. 1. A summary of potential factors affecting formation of the parasitic channel at or near
the epitaxy – Si substrate interface.
For instance, several reports have identified the diffusion of Ga-

and Al-species into the Si substrate as the cause of a conductive p-
type layer [23, 28, 29], while yet others have attributed this to a
polarization driven n-type inversion layer of electrons at the interface
[25–27, 30], both of which are quite distinct mechanisms by
themselves. We now examine these and several other factors in
more detail.
The diffusion of Al and Ga-containing species into the Si
substrate has been shown to form a p-type conductive layer of holes
with peak densities ranging from 1018-1015 cm–3 at the interface and
a roll-off ranging from <100 nm – 3 μm away from the interface as
characterized by SIMS and spreading resistance measurements [23,
28]. Ga and Al, both p-type dopants in Si, could diffuse into the
substrate from –
1) the vapor phase directly, most notably in the case of Al as an AlN

nucleation layer is the first layer deposited on Si prior to GaN
growth, and from reactor residues containing Ga- and Al-species,
and/or
2) out-diffusion from the deposited films as the growth temperatures
used are typically very high (900-1200°C for MOCVD).
Figure 2 shows the 1-D equilibrium band diagram for the case of a
Ga-profile with a peak concentration of 1018 cm–3 at the interface
and a roll-off of 3 μm into highly resistive n-type Si (10 kΩ.cm),
without accounting for any interfacial polarization charge.
Fig. 2. (a) Ga-diffusion profile in the Si substrate with peak concentration of 1018 cm–3 at
the interface and roll-off of 3 μm after Hanson et al. [23] (b) Band diagram of near-
interface HR-Si region at the AlN/Si heterointerface showing the accumulation of holes close
to the interface, generated using the Silvaco ATLAS device simulator.
It is important to note that the III-nitride films grown on Si are
not only highly defective but also have large film stresses (in the GPa
range) even at the growth temperatures [6]. The initial layers such
as the AlN nucleation layer and some part of the subsequent AlGaN
transition layers are typically grown under tensile strain and have
dislocation densities ranging from 1013 cm–2 in the AlN layer to 1011
cm–2 in the AlGaN layers. The GaN buffers are typically engineered
to have a compressive strain in order to obtain crack-free films on
cool-down and typically have dislocation densities of 109-1010 cm–2
at the active device regions [31, 32]. These large dislocation
densities could act as local diffusion pathways for Ga- and Al-species
towards the substrate with the large film stresses further aiding such
diffusion. It is also noteworthy that only Al and Ga in substitutional
Si sites act as dopants. While such substitutional doping would be
aided by the high growth temperatures typically used, the total
density of these species as reported by SIMS measurement would
also include interstitial Al/Ga. Furthermore, the parasitic channel is
expected to be composed of holes (p-type) in this case.
Another commonly proposed explanation for the parasitic channel
is the formation of an inversion layer of electrons at the Si/AlN
interface [25–27]. AlN is a polar material with a high spontaneous
(Psp) and piezoelectric polarization (Ppz) while Si is a non-polar
material. This gives rise to a “polarization step” at this polar/non-
polar hetero-interface. Since AlN on Si is almost always Al-polar, a
positive polarization charge would be manifest at this interface.
Given the large spontaneous polarization of the AlN (0.081μC/cm2),
this should correspond to a sheet charge of ~5x1013 cm–2 at the
interface. Furthermore, the AlN films are typically strained in tension
(>1 GPa) and hence the piezoelectric polarization should add to the
spontaneous polarization and increase the interfacial sheet charge
and expected electron density at this interface. Figure 3 shows the
equilibrium band diagram for this scenario assuming a relaxed 100
nm AlN layer (Ppz = 0) on a highly resistive p-type Si (10 kΩ.cm).
The parasitic channel in this case is composed of an inversion layer
of electrons (n-type), the origin of which would most likely be
thermal generation in the silicon substrate or surface donors in case
of only AlN layers on Si [27].
Fig. 3. (a) Band diagram at the AlN/Si interface assuming spontaneous polarization only in
relaxed AlN films on Si showing formation of an inversion layer of electrons at the interface.
(b) Plot of electron concentration expected due to the polarization step at an ideal AlN/Si
interface, generated using the Silvaco ATLAS device simulator.
The interface between Si and AlN is expected to be highly

defective due to the large lattice and thermal mismatch between
these materials. Based on the lattice mismatch, it has been shown
that 4 lattice segments of (111) Si correspond to 5 planes of (1-100)
AlN with one misfit dislocation created for strain relaxation [33]. In
addition, AlN grows in the 3D Volmer-Weber growth mode with 50-
100 nm grains coalescing to form grain boundaries. This leads to
threading dislocation densities of 1013-1012 cm–2, comparable to the
expected electron density, in these layers. All of the above factors
are also expected to give rise to a large trap density at this highly
disordered interface. This in turn should lead to a sharp reduction in
effective carrier mobility and hence the interfacial conductivity with
the interfacial charge determined by the electrostatics of such trap
states. Indeed AlN layers have been explored as a dielectric for Si
MIS structures and both negative and positive shifts in flat-band
voltages have been observed, corresponding to negative and
positive interfacial charges [30, 34–36]. Reported interface trap
densities vary widely from 1011-1013 cm–2 depending on the
deposition conditions [37]. For instance, Fig. 4 shows the extracted
Dit from conductance spectra for MIS structures of standard MOCVD
grown 50 nm AlN layers on p-Si substrates from our earlier work
[29]. Both slow and fast trap states were observed with Dit ranging
from 1013-109 cm–2 as the capacitor was swept from depletion to
weak inversion.
Fig. 4. (a) Conductance spectra of 50 nm MOCVD AlN films on p-Si substrates showing the
evolution of slow and fast traps. (b) Interface trap densities (Dit in cm–2) and trap time
constants (τit in s) with gate voltage swept from depletion to weak inversion. (Reprinted
with permission from Thickness-dependent Parasitic Channel Formation at AlN/Si Interface,
by H. Chandrasekar et al., in Scientific Reports, Volume 7, Article number: 15749, 2017).
Similarly, Simoen et al. have undertaken detailed DLTS and ESR

investigations of the AlN/p++-Si interface and found no evidence of
an inversion layer. Instead a large concentration of hole traps at the
interface due to trivalent Pb centres in Si at 0.3-0.4eV above the Si
valence band as well as defects associated with amorphous Si or
extended defects in Si with a total interface state density of >1012
cm–2 were observed [38, 39].
Additionally, the Si/III-nitride interface itself is typically composed
of SiNx layers due to nitridation of the Si surface by the N-containing
species (NH3 in case of MOCVD) during growth or the diffusion of
nitrogen from the films (thus leading to nitrogen vacancies in III-N
films) [40]. In some cases such nitridation is also intentional in order
to reduce the dislocation density using SiNx inclusions as in-situ
masking layers [41]. These SiNx layers are typically amorphous, thin,
and/or discontinuous and may act as diffusion barriers for the
movement of other species to the Si surface. But, the formation of
SiNx layers is very much dependent of growth conditions used and
various reports can be found in literature to make the case for
growth using Al-first, N-first or a simultaneous introduction of both
species [42–44]. Similarly, TEM images show a plethora of interfacial
configurations ranging from clean and abrupt AlN/Si hetero-
interfaces to amorphous SiNx inclusions to AlSiNx and Al-rich regions
[9, 33, 39, 43, 45].
Furthermore, other chemical species such as oxygen, hydrogen
and carbon are present in not insignificant proportions during the
growth of III-nitride films. Residual oxygen is typically seen as a
contaminant in precursor materials and gases used and can also
originate from growth chambers with quartz components [46]. Some
amount of oxygen observed at the epitaxy-substrate interfaces can
also be due to the presence of oxygen in the silicon wafers
themselves (>1017 cm–3 in Czochralski grown Si and <1016 cm–3 in
float-zone silicon wafers) [47] which re-distributes at the high
growth temperatures. Near-interface oxygen concentrations >1019
cm–3 have been reported for AlN and GaN growth on Si (111) using
MOCVD [29, 46]. Hydrogen is a commonly used carrier gas in
MOCVD growth of III-nitrides and significant incorporation and
diffusion of hydrogen within these films have been shown to occur
[48]. The diffusion of hydrogen towards the interface would also
serve to passivate dangling bonds at the Si surface and thus reduce
the trap density, but could also lead to the formation of complexes
with other atomic species such as C, N and O at the interface. The
interface trap density at AlN/Si interfaces has been shown to
decrease both upon further annealing in NH3/H2, and the growth of
AlGaN layers which indicates that further Ga and hydrogen diffusion
passivates Si dangling bonds and reduces the extended defects in
the Si [38, 39]. Carbon can be similarly traced back to the metal-
organic precursors used for CVD growth of III-nitride films and
additionally to the use of a carbon-doping source for obtaining
highly-resistive GaN buffer and AlGaN transition layers [49, 50]. The
presence of these atomic species has been shown by us earlier to
form complexes such as the acceptor-like Si-O-N complex at high
temperatures thus giving a p-type parasitic channel even for bare
AlN/Si interfaces, without any GaN growth [29].
Moreover, in case doped Si substrates are used, there can also be
significant dopant re-distribution within the substrate itself for
growth temperatures >1000°C as has been shown for AlN growth on
Si [29]. Such dopant pile-up at Si hetero-interfaces mediated by
stress and defects has been well studied in the silicon literature [51,
52]. The increased presence of Boron, in case of typical p-type
substrates, and Phosphorous, in case of typical n-type substrates,
would lead to higher near-interfacial conductivity of the respective
carrier polarity thus giving rise to parasitic conduction. This is
expected to be much less of a problem for highly-resistive,
uncompensated float-zone Si substrates (but not for compensated
substrates).
Lastly, it is also of interest to note that significant diffusion of
both Si and Si-dopants such as boron have been shown to occur
upwards into the nitride films, presumably through some of the
same dislocation and stress-mediated pathways discussed above
[28, 29]. However, given the wide band gap nature and poor
electrical conductivity of III-nitride layers, such diffusion is not
expected to significantly contribute to parasitic channel effects.
However, the presence of electrically active leakage paths, such as
screw dislocations within the AlN layer itself has been recently
shown by Berber et al. to be a major contributor to parasitic loss for
MOCVD AlN films on Si (σ >15 S/m) as opposed to any p-type layer
(σ<1 S/m) [53].
Given the diversity of observations listed above it is reasonable to
conclude that the exact mechanism of parasitic channel formation is
highly dependent on the starting Si substrate, pre-growth substrate
treatments, and reactor & growth conditions used for the hetero-
epitaxial growth. Changes to any one of these factors favors a
particular interface/near-interfacial configuration that in turn
determines the origin and extent of the parasitic channel. We next
discuss some of the implications of the parasitic channel on RF loss
in GaN-on-Si devices.
2.2. Effect of Parasitic Channel on RF

Performance of GaN-on-Si Devices
The presence of the parasitic channel has been shown to impact RF
loss in GaN-on-Si devices which is evident in both small-signal and
large-signal performance. The diversity of observations for the
parasitic channel as discussed above manifests most clearly in terms
of measured RF losses. In order to undertake a comparison of
reported losses due to substrate parasitic conduction, we make use
of reported small-signal CPW line losses in literature and this data is
summarized in Table 1 below. The measured line loss on these
structures depends on the conductivity of the parasitic channel as
well as the epitaxial thickness and line dimensions, all of which affect
the extent of capacitive coupling. The total loss reported typically
also has conductor loss contributions which need to be isolated for
one-to-one comparison of substrate losses. Hence, where available,
these details are also included in the Table below. We see that for
GaN buffers on Si, the transmission loss measured at 40 GHz varies
from as high as >3.5 dB/mm for un-optimized epitaxial stacks to as
low as 0.27 dB/mm for epitaxy with parasitic channel suppression
and low conductor losses.
In terms of GaN-on-Si HEMTs, the presence of the conductive
channel has been demonstrated to cause parasitic loading effects
leading to a reduction in output power, efficiencies – both drain
efficiency and PAE. For instance, Xiao et al. have projected
improvements of 1.4dBm, 13.8% and 6 dB in output power, PAE and
linear gain at 6dB gain compression point using large-signal
modeling for devices without a parasitic conduction layer over those
with. Similarly, Pattison et al., demonstrated improvements in both
drain efficiency (78% vs 71%) and class B PA efficiency (63% vs
71%) for devices with reduced parasitic channel effects as compared
to non-optimized buffers [61]. Also, the ft to fmax ratio of devices
with a parasitic channel drops sharply to values ~1 as compared to
those without, due to an increase in the output conductance
(fmax=ft/2√(Ri/Rds) for the small-signal case). In addition to fmax, the
intrinsic ft itself has been shown to decrease by ~2x by Chumbes et
al. as compared to the intrinsic ft for GaN HEMTs on conductive Si
substrates due to parasitic loading effects [12]. In this context, it is
also important to mention that several approaches to construct RF
small-signal models have been reported that explicitly account for
substrate parasitic elements, by using bias-dependent S-parameter
measurements and de-embedding the extrinsic circuit elements; and
large-signal models constructed using these de-embedded intrinsic
elements also show good agreement with measurements [24, 58–
60].
Table 1. Comparison of reported CPW line losses in literature for GaN-on-Si at 40 GHz with
available epitaxial and line dimensions and corresponding parasitic channel mechanism
attributions.
2.3. Minimizing the Influence of the Substrate
Parasitic Channel
We now discuss a few techniques that have been adopted to
suppress the influence of the parasitic channel in GaN-on-Si devices.
The first broad category relates to changes in the epitaxial growth
techniques. The use of a low temperature AlN nucleation layer as
the first step of the epitaxy is one such method, which reduces the
thermal exposure of the Si top surface to the precursor chemicals
while depositing a good quality AlN diffusion barrier at the start of
growth [23]. Similarly, the use of other diffusion barriers such as
SiNx and SiC have also been proposed [56]. It is important to
evaluate the film quality and thermal conductivity of these diffusion
barriers as there will be a trade-off between the thickness of the
diffusion barrier and the defect density in the III-nitride films in case
of amorphous or non-lattice matched barrier materials, as well as
affecting heat extraction from active channel layers. The diffusion
barriers layers are expected to reduce the influx of species from the
films/growth ambient into the substrate thus reducing the peak
concentrations and depths of shallow acceptors in Si. It is important
to note that these approaches are particularly sensitive to the
growth of the initial III-nitride layers. Another approach that has
been proposed to decrease the conductivity of the parasitic layer is
to ion-implant H+ or O+ species post-epitaxy in order to create
defects in the near-surface conductive region or to use counter
dopants such as phosphorous to compensate the higher Al/Ga-
acceptors in Si [56].
The other promising technique that has been employed to
minimize the effect of the parasitic channel is the complete or partial
removal of the substrate itself. Pattison et al. have shown
improvements in the class B efficiency of GaN-on-Si devices from
~45% to 65% going up to 71% for devices with a parasitic channel
(equivalent resistance of 400Ω), with back-side substrate removal
under the channel region (R=3500 Ω) and backside substrate
removal under the channel and drain pad regions (R=11500 Ω)
respectively [61]. Similarly, Chumbes et al have demonstrated that
implementing a substrate removal scheme has increased the ft /fmax
ratio for GaN HEMTs on conductive Si substrates by 2.5x [12]. While
the comparative ease of the Si etching process makes this a
desirable option for parasitic channel suppression, an effective
implementation of the substrate removal scheme also needs to
consider the design of effective thermal management schemes for
heat removal from the back-side etched III-nitride layers.
3. Back-bias Effects and Buffer-induced

Current Collapse in GaN-on-Si
3.1. Current Collapse in GaN HEMTs due to
Buffer Traps
Apart from the parasitic substrate loss issue discussed previously, the
other major concern with GaN HEMTs in general is current collapse –
whether due to surface or buffer traps. Effective passivation
schemes and field plate designs have been shown to reduce surface-
related current collapse in GaN HEMTs [62–67]. However, the
optimal design of GaN buffers, which are made highly-resistive by
doping them with deep-level impurities such as Fe or C in
conjunction with growth defects, is also required to reduce buffer-
induced current collapse in these devices [68–72]. This problem is
exacerbated in the case of GaN-on-Si as compared to GaN-on-SiC as
the presence of the parasitic conduction channel at the substrate
interface serves to back-bias the epitaxy. We now discuss this effect
in more detail.
The necessity to reduce parallel buffer conduction compels the
use of highly-resistive GaN buffers which is typically achieved by the
use of either Fe-doping or C-doping or intrinsic growth defects. Both
Fe and C are deep level acceptors in GaN but with significantly
different energy levels within the band gap. The Fe-acceptor is
located at 0.6-0.7 eV below the conduction band whereas the C-
acceptor level (CN) is 0.8-0.9 eV above the valence band [73, 74].
Therefore, the preponderance of either Fe or C dopants pins the
Fermi level at their respective trap levels in the upper and lower half
of the band gap respectively, thus making the buffers either mildly
n-type or p-type, albeit highly resistive for device characterization
purposes [72, 75]. The exact location of the Fermi level in the GaN
buffers is also determined by the amount of compensating donors –
either due to self-compensation in case of Carbon doping (C-atoms
in the Ga site CGa), unintentional donor states due to Oxygen
incorporation or N-vacancies, or intentional doping with donors such
as Si [76, 77]. If the Fermi level is indeed pinned to the lower half of
the band gap, as in the case of higher CN acceptor concentrations,
this leads to a pn junction between the n-type GaN channel and
C:GaN buffer, thus giving rise to a floating buffer which can store
charge under high applied drain bias [78–80]. It is this stored
negative charge, due to the occupancy of deep-acceptor traps in the
p-type buffer, which causes a strong voltage-dependent buffer-
induced current collapse in C:doped epitaxy. In comparison
Fe:doped GaN buffers, which are mildly n-type, have been shown to
cause only mild current collapse due to the lack of such floating
regions [68]. Furthermore, the presence of leakage paths in the
unintentionally doped GaN channel regions has been shown by Uren
et al. to be necessary to reduce current collapse by bringing the
floating region to a similar potential as the 2DEG by using a back-
bias technique to probe vertical charge transport in GaN-on-Si stacks
[81]. Such back-biasing of the epitaxy due to the conductive
substrate is more apparent for GaN on doped Si wafers typically
used for power devices and the choice of Si substrate doping – n-
type, p-type, n+ and p+ – also affects substrate depletion, vertical
leakage and breakdown in GaN-on-Si power devices [82]. GaN-on-Si
for RF, in contrast, is grown on highly-resistive Si as it is expected to
act as more of an insulator, drop a larger proportion of applied drain
voltage across it and hence have a reduced influence on the electric
field distribution in the GaN epitaxial layers themselves. However, we
now discuss that this is not the case, as even the resistive Si
substrate has net vertical leakage across its thickness which
contributes carriers to the interfacial channel at the AlN/Si interface
and serves to backbias the epitaxial stack leading to current collapse
[83].
3.2. Substrate Depletion and Back-biasing in

Highly Resistive Si Substrates
Buffer-induced current collapse effects in GaN-on-doped Si power
devices have been accurately characterized and modeled using a
substrate ramp technique, where the substrate voltage is slowly
ramped from zero to more negative voltages (analogous to positive
applied drain bias) and then swept back while the 2DEG conductivity
is simultaneously monitored between two ohmic pads using a very
small probe voltage [78]. This allows the isolation of buffer
contribution to current collapse as the 2DEG serves to screen the
applied back potential from the surface traps which hence do not
contribute to current collapse until the 2DEG is significantly
depleted. It also permits easier lumped element modeling (see
Fig. 5) as the substrate plane makes this a 1-D problem as opposed
to more involved 2-D field distributions in case of other methods
such as pulsed-IV used to evaluate current collapse. In case of
negative stored charge in the GaN buffer, the 2DEG conductivity is
reduced when the substrate voltage is swept back to zero from
negative voltages corresponding to current collapse [78]. The
applicability of such a back-bias technique to highly-resistive Si
substrates is not, however, obvious. Since the substrate potential is
swept between rates of 0.1-100 V/s, we would also expect the HR-Si
to be driven into deep-depletion even for modest sweep rates, which
would widen the depletion layer in the substrate and hence support
a higher voltage drop across it. The 2DEG conductivity for a perfectly
capacitive epitaxial stack with a conductive substrate should lie along
the dotted line for an ideal capacitor shown in Fig. 5. In case of
additional voltage drop across the substrate, the effective voltage
across the epitaxy is reduced and hence the 2DEG conductivity curve
would lie above the capacitive line. It is also important to distinguish
between substrate depletion effects and positive charge storage
observed in current-collapse free GaN-on-Si stacks, which also
manifest as 2DEG conductivity traces above the ideal capacitive line,
but with the direction of the trace reversed, i.e. clock-wise direction
[78].
Fig. 5. (a) GaN-on-Si HEMT stack with 1-D lumped element equivalent circuit for charge
storage during substrate ramp measurements. (b) Representative curves for normalized
2DEG conductivity for negative substrate ramps for a GaN HEMT with buffer-induced
current collapse due to charge re-distribution and for the case where substrate depletion
effects are observed. Also shown is the capacitance line for the entire epitaxy behaving as
an ideal capacitor.
Fig. 6. (a) Measured substrate ramp traces for the C:doped GaN-on-HR Si HEMT stack
shown in Fig. 5 for ramp rates of 0.4, 4 and 25 V/s with Vd of 1V and Vg of 0V. (b)
Simulated substrate ramp traces for an identical stack using Silvaco ATLAS. (c) Band
diagram at -50V (point A in (b)). The applied voltage drops entirely in the epitaxy and not
in the HR-Si at all. (d) Charge re-distribution in the C:doped region when the applied
substrate bias is removed (point B in (b)) (© IEEE 2018, Reprinted with permission from
Buffer-induced Current Collapse in GaN HEMTs on Highly Resistive Si Substrates by H.
Chandrasekar et al., in IEEE Electron Device Letters 39(10), pg. 1556-1559, 2018) [83].
The substrate sweep rates for which the HR-Si is expected to be

driven into deep-depletion can be estimated through a standard
MOS capacitor analysis by treating the epitaxy as a dielectric, as the
resistive III-nitride layers are typically highly-resistive (1010-1014
Ω.cm). For an applied positive drain voltage, electron accumulation
at the substrate-epitaxy interface should occur with the electrons in
the Si being thermally generated. Since uncompensated, float-zone,
highly-resistive Si has carrier lifetimes >1 ms [84], the diffusion
length of carriers which can reach the interface is given by
L=√(Dnτn)=1.9 mm, which is comparable or greater than the
thickness of most commonly used Si substrates for GaN growth. The
sweep rates for the onset of deep-depletion can be estimated as
[85],
where Gth is the thermal generation rate given by ni /τn and CIII-N is
the areal capacitance (F/cm2) of the total III-nitride epitaxial stack.
Substrate ramps above this rate should widen the depletion region
and hence increase the voltage dropped across the Si. However, it
has been shown that the measured 2DEG conductivity traces fall
below the ideal capacitive limit even for very high sweep rates of 25
V/s for a proto-typical Carbon-doped GaN stack on HR-Si, as seen in
Fig. 6(a) [83]. This shows that deep-depletion in silicon is not
achieved even for such high sweep rates hence pointing to the
inadequacy of thermal generation as the only carrier contributing
mechanism to the inversion channel at the interface. Interestingly,
the experimental findings could be reproduced by device simulations
once carrier injection from the bottom substrate contact was
considered (see Fig. 6(b)). Thus, small amounts of vertical current
flow through the highly-resistive Si substrate, due to its
semiconducting nature, coupled with the conductive layer at the
epitaxy-substrate interface serves to back-bias the GaN layers and
leads to current collapse. This current collapse in turn is due to
charge-redistribution within the carbon doped buffer layer with
ionized acceptors and donors at the GaN buffer/strain-relief layers
(AlGaN) interface. Since the negative stored acceptor charge is
closer to the 2DEG, this causes the 2DEG conductivity to drop
leading to collapse. This can also be seen in band diagrams of
Fig. 6(c) and (d) which shows the negative charge close to the 2DEG
due to the ionized acceptors at the top of the C:doped layers leading
to current collapse, with positive compensating donor charge at the
top of the strain relief layer. We see that this phenomenon is
identical to that for GaN-on-doped Si substrates for power electronic
applications [78]. In comparison these effects would not arise in
case of the insulating SiC substrates used for standard GaN-on-SiC
RF devices and hence GaN-on-Si RF devices are inherently more
susceptible to buffer-induced current collapse in comparison to those
on SiC.
3.3. Suppression of Buffer-induced Current

Collapse for GaN-on-Si RF Devices
The approaches for better buffer design with reduced current
collapse developed for GaN-on-doped Si power stacks can be
leveraged for GaN-on-HR-Si as the back-biasing effects are identical
in these two configurations. This typically involves storing positive
charge in the epitaxy, which screens the back-gated electric field due
to positive applied drain bias (equivalent negative substrate bias)
and reduces current collapse. Such positive charge storage in turn
has been achieved by injecting holes into the buffer explicitly either
using p+ GaN layers connected to the drain electrode in the hybrid-
drain GIT architecture proposed by Kaneko et al. [86], or by using a
photonic ohmic drain as proposed by Tang et al. [87], which uses
light to de-trap carriers from the deep states induced by carbon–
doping; or more traditionally by introducing vertical leakage paths
during the growth of the top-most GaN buffers themselves which
prevents the formation of a floating buffer situation by injecting
holes underneath the drain [78]. An alternate approach to drive the
HR-Si into deep depletion for GaN-on-Si RF stacks would be to
engineer a mildly leaky epitaxy throughout the III-nitride stack,
instead of just the top-most layers, which would prevent the pile-up
of electrons at the substrate interface. This would lead to added
benefits in terms of increasing vertical breakdown by dropping more
voltage across the substrate depletion region, quite unlike the more
straightforward breakdown voltage/current-collapse trade-offs seen
for GaN-on-doped Si stacks [82]. Another potential solution to
suppress the kind of back-biasing effects observed due to current
injection from the substrate contact is the use of a very thin
insulating layer prior to back-side metallization in micro-strip or
conductor-backed CPW architectures to form a blocking-back
contact. The benefits of such an approach can be seen in Fig. 7
where the introduction of a 10 nm SiO2 layer clearly cuts down on
the injection of carriers into the substrate thus pushing it into deep-
depletion. Therefore, the normalized 2DEG conductivity for the
substrate ramp simulation now falls above the ideal capacitive line,
for the same configuration discussed earlier in Fig. 6. Each of these
schemes would cause a reduction in the current-collapse effects for
GaN-on-Si RF HEMTs leading to improved power amplifier
performance.
Fig. 7. Device simulations showing the effect of a blocking substrate contact in inducing
substrate depletion for GaN-on-HR Si stack. The normalized drain current trace falls above
the ideal capacitive line as expected when compared to a regular back-bias configuration.
4. Temperature-dependent Substrate Loss in

GaN-on-Si RF Technology
4.1. Background – Substrate Conductivity and
Temperature
The high power handling capabilities of lateral AlGaN/GaN HEMTs
also lead to elevated channel temperatures in these devices which
has been studied extensively [88–93]. Values for actual channel
temperature depend on a wide range of factors such as choice of
substrate, epitaxial design, device layout, die attach and heat
spreader configuration, power density and device operating
conditions among others [7, 94–96]. These high temperatures affect
the electrical performance of the active device itself and constitute a
major reliability concern [19, 97]. As a result, many heat removal
strategies have been proposed and implemented both at the
package and device levels, notably the use of high thermal
conductivity substrates such as GaN-on-Diamond devices which have
already shown power densities >3x higher than GaN-on-SiC devices
with comparable electrical performance [98–101]. More specifically
for GaN-on-Si RF devices, typical channel temperatures >150°C have
been reported at power densities of ~4-6 W/mm under continuous
wave (CW) operation [7, 102]. Thermal management strategies to
reduce operating temperatures are out of the scope of the present
review and will not be discussed further. Instead, we focus on the
related problem of the device impact of heat flow from the active
device regions down to the substrate in terms of increased RF
losses. In comparison to the commonly used SiC or sapphire
substrates for GaN growth, which can be made insulating/semi-
insulating, Si is a narrow band gap semiconductor. Even though
highly-resistive Si substrates (ρ>5 kΩ.cm) are almost exclusively
used in GaN-on-Si RF device fabrication, the effect of substrate
heating in Si serves to induce a significant number of thermally
generated carriers in the substrate due to its small band gap. We
also note here that it has been rightly pointed out in literature that
the thermal conductivity difference between Si and SiC substrates
reduces from a factor of 3:1 at 25°C to 2:1 at T>150°C [16]. While
this would lower the impact of substrate thermal conductivity for
heat extraction, it is important to remember that thermal generation
in Si at these temperatures would decrease its resistivity by a large
extent as compared to the wider band gap SiC substrates. It can be
shown that for temperatures beyond 100°C, substrate resistivity
drops steeply for the high-resistivity silicon which leads to capacitive
coupling between the device regions and the conductive substrate at
radio-frequencies thus leading to parasitic losses [103–106]. The
increase in substrate loss with temperature lowers power amplifier
efficiency, while the higher substrate conductivity is equivalent to
moving the substrate ground plane upwards contributing to
increased output capacitance and reducing bandwidth, all of which
need to be factored into circuit design. It is also relevant to mention
here that the presence of the parasitic channel at the substrate-epi
interface, discussed previously, also contributes to RF loss and its
conductivity could also be modulated with temperature. Therefore, it
is quite challenging to experimentally separate out the effects of
intrinsic substrate losses from those of the parasitic conduction path.
We therefore discuss the use of device simulations validated against
experimental data in order to unequivocally quantify the intrinsic
temperature-dependent substrate losses for GaN-on-Si [106].
4.2. Simulation Framework and Experimental

Benchmarking of CPW Line Loss
In order to evaluate temperature-dependent substrate loss for a
range of operating frequencies and starting substrate resistivity,
transmission lines in a CPW configuration were employed to estimate
RF loss. The ensuing discussions would translate over to active
devices as well. GaN-on-Si CPW lines with low losses of 0.8 dB/mm
at 110 GHz have been demonstrated [54], but the temperature
dependence of such losses had not been studied previously. A device
simulation framework implemented in Silvaco ATLAS was used in
order to fully capture the change in substrate resistance and
capacitance contributions (see Fig. 8) and their effect on the small-
signal S-parameters. We note that radiation and conductor losses
are not accounted for in this simulation. The substrate loss in a
transmission line was calculated by treating the substrate with
parallel R and C contributions as a lossy dielectric. For a given loss
tangent extracted from the small signal network parameters, the
dielectric loss (dB/mm) for a CPW line with a center conductor width
of WC, gap spacing of S and substrate thickness tsub is given by
[107],
where εr is the relative permittivity of the substrate, λg is the guide

wavelength given by c/f√εr, q is dielectric filling factor estimated as,
and the effective dielectric constant εeff is calculated using
where k and k’ are calculated respectively as,
and k1 and k1’ as,
with
and K(k) & K(k’) are the complete elliptic integrals of the first kind
whose ratios are computed using Hilberg’s approximation as [108],
for 1≤K/(k)/K(k’)≤∞ and 1/√2≤k≤1, and
for 0≤K/(k)/K(k’)≤1 and 0≤k≤1/√2.

This model was then benchmarked against the published
measurements and 3-D full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulations
of Eblabla et al. for CPWs placed directly on GaN on low-resistivity
(LR) Si to verify its validity [109]. The substrate loss is high for LR
substrates, since parasitic channel loss and auto-doping loss are
insignificant, permitting a fair comparison to simulations once the
same geometry and epitaxial stack thickness were used (in this case
GaN of 1.4 µm, AlGaN of 750 nm, AlN and SiNX of 200 nm each, and
Si substrate of 40 Ω.cm and 675 µm thickness). In the 2-D device
simulation, the attenuation constant was calculated at the central
conductor accounting only for the resistive loss in the substrate. The
results of such a comparison are shown in Fig. 8(b). It can be seen
that the simulation captures all the major features of the measured
data while consistently underestimating the total attenuation across
the range of frequencies. This is because, unlike a complete EM
simulation, conductor and radiation losses in these structures are not
accounted for as mentioned earlier. Despite this, we observe that the
substrate loss contribution constitutes the dominant component of
the total attenuation constant (>90% at 67 GHz, or 0.76 dB/mm out
of 0.83 dB/mm measured).
Fig. 8. (a) Cross-section of simulated CPW lines on GaN-on-Si with lumped R-C equivalent
circuit. (b) Attenuation Constant (dB/mm) as a function of frequency for GaN-on-LR Si CPW
lines – measured and EM simulations from Ref. 109 and substrate loss simulations of this
work, for the same geometry and epitaxy. The current simulation of substrate loss
reproduces all the trends of the measurement and is a significant fraction of measured line
loss.
To further verify that the simulation fully captures the physics of

the problem, CPW lines were fabricated on top of a silicon nitride
layer on two silicon substrates of resistivity >5 kΩ.cm and 10-40
Ω.cm respectively. These lines had a centre conductor width (Wc) of
25 μm, spacing (S) of 15 μm and ground lines (Wg) of 100 μm and
the same dimensions were used throughout this study. Since the
interface between the SiNx layer and silicon substrates is cleaner and
does not suffer from parasitic channel effects, this configuration was
preferred to CPW lines directly on GaN-on-Si for verifying the model.
This makes it possible to compare the predictions of the model at
different temperatures with measured values of insertion loss as
shown in Fig. 9 below. The simulations correctly predict the trends of
increasing substrate loss with temperature for high-resistivity Si
substrates. We also see that the loss on low-resistivity substrates
actually decreases with increasing temperature (experimental and
simulated) due to the mild increase in Si resistivity with temperature
(in turn caused by mobility degradation due to phonon scattering), a
trend that is again captured by the simulation.
Fig. 9. Comparison of experimental and simulated line loss at 20 GHz on SiNx-on-Si CPW
structures for substrate resistivity of 10 kΩ.cm and 25 Ω.cm from 25-200°C. (© IEEE 2019,
Reprinted with permission from Quantifying Temperature-dependent Substrate Loss in GaN-
on-Si RF Technology, by H. Chandrasekar et al., in IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
66(4), pg. 1681-1687, 2019) [106].
4.3. Substrate Loss – Temperature, Frequency

and Starting Substrate Resistivity
Dependencies
Now that the simulation framework has been verified to accurately
represent the substrate loss at various temperatures and
frequencies, line losses for a representative GaN-on-Si stack of Fig. 8
were simulated for different temperature and frequencies and
various starting substrate resistivity. Figure 10 shows the estimated
substrate loss as a function of frequency for the three different Si
substrates of HR, LR and very-low resistivity (ρ=10 kΩ.cm, 1 Ω.cm
and 0.01 Ω.cm respectively).
It can be seen that not only is the substrate loss temperature-
insensitive for low and very-low resistivity substrates in contrast to
HR-Si which has a pronounced temperature dependence, the
magnitude of such loss is also lower for these low-res substrates
than HR-Si for frequencies <20 GHz, beyond which a sharp increase
is observed. This is primarily due to the collective response of the
substrate resistance and capacitance at the interface which causes a
shift in the peak of the loss tangent and hence substrate loss to
higher frequencies for lower substrate resistivity. This data can be
represented as shown in Fig. 11 below, which shows the simulated
substrate loss with temperature for three different frequency bands
and four different starting substrate resistivity.
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contentedly in the thought that Heaven had given me, if only for one
little hour, a lover so loyal, true and brave. Ludovic, my love, my poor
starved heart thanks God for you.”
For an instant the word was at his lips which would have told her his
secret, for, surely, the opportunity was apt. Perhaps it was a feeling
that, in a higher sense, in that atmosphere so fully charged with
tenderness and love, the cold shock of the announcement would be
unfitting; perhaps, too, his sensitive, innate chivalry made him shrink
from taking advantage of that supreme moment. The very certainty
that the stroke must win held him back from making it. Anyhow it
passed, and when rapture allowed him speech it was of a still more
urgent matter, their escape. She told him it was for that she had
risked the message.
“The Baron does not say so, but I know I am destined for Krell. And
once there,” she shuddered, “I may say farewell to my hopes and to
my liberty, except on terms which are now forever impossible.”
He understood, and signified it by a kiss.
“There is no reason, I hope,” he said, “why we should not push on
again for Beroldstein. The longest and worst part of the way has
been travelled, and the end of our journey is now not so far off. With
a couple of hours’ start we could laugh at pursuit, and need not fear
the high roads to-night.”
“Then let us go, dearest,” she urged.
He smiled at the eagerness he loved. “Everything is arranged,” he
replied. “Ompertz is waiting with horses, and will ride with us. I fear,
though, we must leave Countess Minna behind this time. But she is
now safe from this fellow.”
A look of disappointment clouded Ruperta’s face. “Rollmar will visit
my sins on poor Minna’s head.”
“Her penance shall be of short duration, I promise you that,” Ludovic
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Rollmar is too sensible to take a foolish and futile revenge. Indeed, it
is best; more, it is necessary. We have no horse for her.”
“And Minna hates riding, if you had. Well then, we must leave her. It
is easier now,” she added, with a loving look of confidence.
In a very few minutes preparations for the escape and the journey
were made. Ludovic extinguished the light, and, cautiously opening
the door, crept out, leading the way along the narrow passage, and
down the winding stairs, descending to the outer door by which his
guide had admitted him to the castle. No one was to be seen; the
door was unlocked; they passed out, and crossed an angular court-
yard to a massive stone door set in the outer wall. This, as Ludovic’s
conductor had shown him, was left merely bolted on the inside; at a
strong pull it swung slowly open, and they found themselves in a
passage cut through the rock and leading out into the wood.
Ludovic put his arm round Ruperta to help her along the rough path.
“Now for our faithful Ompertz and the horses,” he said
encouragingly. “He is near at hand. Another hour, dearest, will see
us miles away from this hateful place.”
They were now at the end of the cutting. It was with a delicious
sense of freshness and liberty that Ruperta felt the wind through the
trees blowing on her face. Her lover’s strong arm was round her—in
a few minutes the enemies of her happiness were to be given the
slip. There was just light enough to see the path; a stronger blast of
wind came through the wood, deadening the sound of another rush.
More quickly than they could realize it, they were surrounded by half
a dozen men who had suddenly sprung from their ambush. Before
Ludovic could put his hand to a weapon, he was seized by four
strong fellows, who held his arms firmly, and began to drag him back
to the castle. Ruperta, with all her spirit, was powerless to render him
any help. She herself had been captured by two men who, with less
violence, but equally insistent force, kept her from following.
But the dashing of her hopes, the sickening sense of the Count’s
treachery, made her desperate and reckless. She struggled furiously
with her captors, two tall, evil-looking ruffians who had, however,
evidently had orders to treat her with as much respect as their object
permitted. This was to take her back to the castle by another
entrance; but they found it not so easy. Ruperta resisted vigorously,
then, remembering that Ompertz might be near, she began calling
for help. It was but a faint hope, but, to her joy, she heard an
answering call which was followed by the welcome appearance of
the great dashing swashbuckler, who came through the wood with a
leap and uplifted sword, a very fury to the rescue.
Evidently the men thought so, for it was with no very confident air
that one of them released his hold on Ruperta, and, drawing his
sword, stood before her to keep Ompertz off. A dog might as well
have tried the repel the spring of an attacking lion. With a mighty
sweep his sword was sent flying among the trees, and it was only by
a smart backward spring that he cheated the soldier’s blade of its
second blow.
At the same moment Ruperta found herself free, her other captor
thinking less of his charge than of his skin, which was, indeed, just
then in jeopardy of damage. She quickly told her rescuer what had
happened. He just checked an oath of angry disappointment.
“I told him what to expect,” he said, savagely rueful. “But we both
hoped I might prove a false prophet. Oh,”—he set his teeth
ominously—“oh, for five minutes alone with this precious Count! He
should never tell another lie while I lived, or he.”
Ruperta entreated him to follow her lover and free him. He felt the
urgency of the move, yet hesitated.
“I dare not leave you, Princess, and if we go together”—he gave a
shrug—“I am only one to defend you against this gang of bandits. It
were better to see you into safety first.”
But she would not hear of abandoning Ludovic while there was a
chance of rescue. She too would go back; she had no fear.
Ompertz saw the true courage in her eyes, and no longer opposed
her wish. The two men had skulked away; they were scarcely worth
consideration now. The soldier gave his hand to Ruperta, and, sword
in the other, led her quickly along the passage to the stone door. It
was closed and fast bolted; the men had clearly taken their prisoner
through, and now had him safely lodged. Ompertz gave a kick at the
unyielding barrier.
“No hope of opening that fellow from outside,” he remarked, with a
baffled shake of the head. “And, Highness, let me tell you the sooner
for your sake we get out of this ugly trap the better. We should not
have a chance if these rascals took it into their heads to drop a few
lumps of rock down on ours.”
Although Ruperta had little fear of that awkward contingency, she
recognized the futility of staying there. Her heart was full of
indignation and a terrible anxiety for her lover. But hers was a nature
which rage and fear simply stirred into action; she would never bow
to the inevitable or confess herself beaten.
“Yes. Come back with me quickly,” she said, with sudden resolution.
Ompertz glanced at her and knew that the move was not prompted
by fear, at least for herself. They hurried back along the passage of
rock and into the wood.
“The horses are close by,” Ompertz said, in a tone of doubtful
suggestion.
“That is well; we may want them,” Ruperta replied, and he saw that
she had in her mind a plan of action.
“The Chancellor brought men—soldiers—with him? How many?”
“About eighty.”
“They are near?”
“Hard by, in the forest beyond the valley.”
“That is well,” she said. “I can trust myself to them. I am their
Princess. It is only their leaders who are so vilely treacherous.”
Ompertz looked a little dubious. “If they were all like me, Princess,
you might trust them to the death.”
“And you think I cannot rely upon them to protect me against the
false hearts and lying tongues of the cowards who threaten us? At
least I will try them.”
There was a rustling in the wood, and Count Irromar stood before
them.
CHAPTER XXVII
AN UNWISE MERCY
“YOU have taken an unfair advantage, Princess, of my willingness to

serve you,” he said, with a dark smile.
“I am again, as I might have expected, the victim of your treachery,”
Ruperta retorted, full of scornful anger.
He made a deprecating gesture. “You must blame me no more now.
The business is out of my hands. The treatment of which you may
complain is not mine. I am no longer a free agent.”
His meaning was as obvious as was its falsehood. Ompertz took a
step forward.
“Free agent or not, Count,” he said bluffly, “I shall make bold to hold
you responsible for the outrage suffered by Lieutenant von Bertheim
at the hands of your men. I was just wishing for an interview with
you.”
The Count was eyeing him full of stern malignity. “And having
chanced upon it, what do you want to say, my fine fellow?” he asked
contemptuously.
The ugly look on the soldier’s face deepened. “Only this,” he
answered threateningly. “That unless you give an instant order for
our friend’s release, this fine fellow will take upon himself to run you
through, and that without delay.”
A streak of moonlight falling through the trees showed a smile of
ineffable scorn on the Count’s strong face. It also glinted on the
barrel of a pistol which he suddenly presented full at the soldier’s
breast.
“Silence, you dog!” he commanded. “You need a lesson in the
manners befitting a lady’s presence. If you speak another word it will
be your last.”
Ruperta sprang between them. “Count, if you harm this man your life
shall pay for it. I swear. I have power that may astonish you before
long. Yes; I will have you hanged if you do not instantly release the
Lieutenant.”
“You are quite mistaken, Princess,” he replied seriously. “The
Lieutenant is not my prisoner.”
“You liar,” she cried, beside herself with indignation at the way he
was playing with her. “You will tell me next he is not in your house, in
your keeping.”
“It is true enough,” he replied coolly. “But I have no power to release
him. Perhaps you have, Highness.”
The sneer was worthy of him; he had come to hate this woman
whom he might not love.
“We shall see,” she returned. “You refuse?”
“I fear I must—even at the risk of the penalty which your Highness
has foreshadowed.”
“Very well, then,” she said. “You shall see how I will keep my word.
Come, Captain.”
She turned to Ompertz and prepared to move away.
“Permit me to escort you back to his Excellency,” Irromar said. “He
charged me to look after you, and my responsibility is strict.”
“Your responsibility!” she echoed scornfully. “Surely, Count, you have
forfeited any claim to that I will never enter your abominable den
again.”
“It is most unfortunate,” he replied, with a somewhat mocking show
of apology, “that I should have to bear the brunt and odium of your
Chancellor’s actions. Surely, Princess,” he continued, as though
urged merely by his innate love of setting his actions in a false light,
“you must be aware that it was a risky thing to attempt to continue
your elopement under the Baron’s very eye; an eye which looks not
too favourably on the Lieutenant’s pretensions. I should certainly
have warned you against any such mad attempt, had I not thought
that your good sense made it unnecessary.”
Ruperta turned from him, disdainfully impatient. “I cannot discuss the
matter with you, Count, especially as I have good reasons for
believing no word you say.”
He gave a shrug. “It is most unfortunate, I must repeat, this
persistence in imagining my ill-will. As for your interest in the
Lieutenant’s welfare, I can only refer you to Baron Rollmar, to whom
it is now my duty to conduct you.”
He advanced to her with outstretched hand. She shrank from him.
Ompertz whispered a word to her as he fell back a pace. These
movements altered the relative positions of the three. Ruperta had
scarcely caught the soldier’s whisper, but she was quick-witted
enough to divine his intention. She suffered Irromar to lay his hand
on her arm. It gave her an excuse for struggling—to make a sudden
clutch at the hand which held the pistol. Simultaneously Ompertz
gave a swift spring, and, as Ruperta’s hold hampered the Count from
turning to meet his attack, seized him from behind and got his arm
tightly round his neck.
Irromar was a very Hercules, but now he was taken at a
disadvantage, and Ompertz was of strength far above the average. It
was a fierce joy to him to find his muscles round that lying throat,
and in a very few seconds he had the Count half-throttled on the
ground. Then the pistol was wrested away, and their enemy lay at
their mercy.
“Now let me put an end to the villain,” Ompertz gasped, as with
fingers gripping the Count’s throat and knee pressing on his chest he
held out his hand for the pistol.
“Ruperta’s hold hampered the Count from turning to meet
his attack.”
Page 276.
But Ruperta refused. Perhaps the livid, distorted face showed her
too vividly the horror of such a midnight deed, and obscured the
sense of expediency.
“No,” she objected. “We cannot. He must not die here—like this.”
“Then you give Lieutenant von Bertheim’s life for his,” Ompertz
urged, bitterly baulked. “In Heaven’s name, let me put a bullet
through his lying brain, and do a good deed for once.”
But she would not consent. “If he swears on his honour that he will
release the Lieutenant, his life shall be spared,” she said.
Ompertz groaned at the throwing away of this chance. “His honour!
You will repent it if you trust to that,” he said, as he tightened his grip
on the Count’s throat, since he might not shoot him.
But Ruperta saw his intention, and insisted that he should relax his
hold. “You hear, Count?” she said.
“I swear,” he gasped.
“Of course he swears,” growled Ompertz.
For some moments Irromar lay panting; the soldier looking down on
him with a grim hankering that was almost comic. Suddenly, from a
position in which most men would have been helpless, the Count,
who seemed one compact mass of muscle, contrived by a
convulsive effort to throw himself on his side, and a desperate
struggle began. The suddenness of the effort had taken Ompertz by
surprise, and so at some disadvantage. Still, he welcomed the
renewed struggle, since it gave him an excuse for shooting. But
once, when he might have fired with deadly effect, he hesitated
through fear of hitting Ruperta who had seized one of the Count’s
arms, and then, when he did fire, the bullet seemed to take no effect
at all. With an exclamation of disappointment, he dropped the pistol,
and set himself to grapple in deadly earnest with his formidable
adversary. But great as was his strength, it was pitted now against
one of the strongest sets of muscles in Europe. Little by little the
Count got the advantage, he was a skilful wrestler and knew all the
tricks of that art, so that not even Ruperta’s weight hanging on to his
arm made the struggle evenly balanced. Before long he was able to
force Ompertz backwards and, by a dexterous twist, to spring clear
of him. It was only just in time, for Ruperta had taken Ompertz’
sword, and was only hesitating to use it from fear of striking the
wrong man as they swayed and turned in their desperate encounter.
Now the Count was free. “Quick! the sword!” Ompertz cried, as he
recovered his balance and sprang to her for the weapon. There was
a loud laugh of mockery, and, almost before Ompertz had turned to
rush after him, the Count had disappeared in the darkness. Sword in
hand, the soldier followed as best he could, only to be brought up
very soon by the manifest hopelessness of the pursuit and the fear
of missing the Princess. To her he returned, baffled and fuming.
“I said you would regret it, Highness,” was his reproachful greeting.
She was pale and trembling slightly from the excitement. “It cannot
be helped,” she replied, with a touch of authority. “I am sorry for your
sake, but I could not have the man, whatever his crimes, done to
death like that.”
“He has the devil in him,” Ompertz exclaimed wrathfully. “Now
between him and the Chancellor, who has the infernal touch too, I
fear, you may say good-bye to the chance of getting the Lieutenant
free. And I had my prayer answered and my fingers round that
villain’s throat. It was wicked to fling away the chance.”
“Yes, I am sorry now,” Ruperta agreed, showing not half the intense
regret she felt. “But I am not going to submit myself tamely as a
victim to these outrages and false dealings. I am going to
Beroldstein.”
“You, Princess? To Beroldstein?”
“Alone,” she answered resolutely. “I will appeal to the King of Drax-
Beroldstein, since the Duke of Waldavia, my own father, cannot help
me.”
“But the King of Drax-Beroldstein,” Ompertz objected, “is not
Ludovic, but Ferdinand.”
“So much the better,” she returned. “It makes my task less
disagreeable and scarcely more doubtful.”
He recognized the hideous complications which made her plan so
hopeless, yet he saw no sufficient reason for breaking his pledge of
secrecy. After all, Ludovic’s release was the great thing to try for; in
the interests of that, the less known of his identity the better.
“I may go with you, Princess? The horses——”
“No,” she replied. “I should like your escort, but cannot take you
hence. It will be something for me to know that one trusty heart is left
near Ludovic. But I fear. What can you do for my Ludovic against
those cruel villains, the Count and Rollmar?” She turned away in an
access of heart-chilling despair, then next moment had recovered
herself.
“Come, let us not lose another instant,” she said resolutely. “You
must find me an escort among the soldiers. Surely there are some
who will run this risk for their Princess, for any woman, indeed, who
is in such a dire strait as I.”
He told her of certain good fellows there whose acquaintance he had
made in the guard-room, and who, he was sure, would be ready to
risk their lives in this service for her.
“If all goes well, they shall not be losers for standing by me in my
extremity. At least they are human; Rollmar is a fiend.”
They came to the three horses—bitter suggestion of their failure—
mounted, and made their way towards the spot where the men were
encamped. Ompertz’s thoughts were divided between admiration for
this courageous girl and sadness at the thought of how small was
her chance of success.
But the affair, he told himself, was too difficult for his poor brain; he
could see no light through the darkness; only hope that chance, after
leaving them so terribly in the lurch, might once again stand their
friend and accomplish what seemed beyond the scope of every
imaginable plan.
By a difficult path they arrived presently, after many a hindrance from
wood and rock, within a stone’s throw of where the troops lay
encamped. Leaving Ruperta in a place of safety, or, at least, in
concealment, Ompertz went forward to find his men for the purpose.
Half an hour later he, with many misgivings, had taken leave of the
Princess who, with an escort of three stout fellows, started off
through the forest to strike the nearest point of the main road to
Beroldstein. Ruperta had supplemented Ompertz’s explanation by
an appeal to the men to stand by her in her distress. She knew, she
said, the risk her escort would be running; how those who guarded
her flight would do so at the peril of their lives, and she would accept
no service that, with this knowledge, was not freely given. But
Ompertz, a shrewd judge of, at any rate, certain characters, had
made no mistake in choosing the men. Their records were not,
perhaps, of the best repute, but they were three staunch dare-devils,
who would think no more of giving up their prospects and lives at a
word from the Princess than of passing their mug of beer to a thirsty
comrade. They had instantly and heartily sworn to see her through
her long ride, or give their lives in her service, and she felt she need
have no fear of their failing her. So they set off.
The first part of the journey was slow and difficult enough; however,
one of the men knew the country and was confident that they could
not lose their way. Nevertheless, the darkness of the forest
hampered their progress, but, with the dawn, the track, too, grew
lighter as the party emerged upon a hilly stretch of heath.
“We are now but a mile from the great road,” said the man who knew
the way.
They could push on now at a smart pace; time, Ruperta felt, was
everything, and all through the long hours of darkness her
impatience had been torture. It was not many minutes before the
broad coach-road came in sight beyond a belt of woodland which
fringed it. Just before they reached it, hastening over the grassy
road, one of the men, who was riding a few paces ahead, held up a
warning hand.
As they reined up, the ring of horses’ hoofs fell upon their ears. The
man quickly threw himself from the saddle and crept forward to the
corner whence he could get a view of the road. Next instant he came
rushing back, motioning them to turn aside among the trees.
“Horsemen coming fast! Quick! They may be after Her Highness.
Quick, under the trees!”
They had scarcely taken cover, when the other party rode by at a
quick pace. Four men, with a fifth at their head, riding in haste and
looking neither to the right nor left. The figure of the leader was
unmistakable.
“It is Count Irromar,” Ruperta exclaimed under her breath. “In pursuit
of me.”
She was wrong. It was the Count, but he was not in search of her.
He was riding post-haste to Beroldstein on business of his own.
CHAPTER XXVIII
AT THE USURPER’S COURT
IT was with considerable surprise that King Ferdinand of Drax-

Beroldstein, as yet scarcely settled comfortably into his snatched
dignity, heard that the notorious law-defier and outlaw, Count
Irromar, was at the palace, asking for a private audience on business
of the utmost importance. Had the King been a strong man, or one
who felt his position unassailable, he would probably have handed
the noble brigand over to his officers of justice, congratulating
himself on getting the most troublesome and dangerous of his
subjects so cheaply in his power. But Ferdinand was neither. He was
a weak man who had been unable to resist the chance, urged upon
him by designing favourites, to seize a crown which for the moment
seemed to be left without a wearer, and, having put it on his head,
was now trembling inwardly at his own temerity. He could afford to
despise no man, and his only strength came not from within, but was
forced on him by circumstances from without. It was almost a weak
man’s strength of desperation; no one can be so strong by fits and
starts as your thoroughly feeble character who dare not show his
weakness.
Then there was the haunting mystery of Ludwig’s disappearance. At
every waking moment, Ferdinand told himself that his cousin was
surely dead, but in his dreams, he was alive and seeking retribution.
In spite of the assurances of all his friends and flatterers, Ferdinand
found himself doubting every one, from his ministers to the soldiery.
He dreaded to read in every new-comer’s face the solution of the
mystery, the end of his day. Still, he had cast his die, the boats were
burned behind him—foolishly, he told himself, since he might, by
constituting himself regent, have grasped the power clean-handed—
and now, as it was, there seemed nothing for it but to assume a
resolution which he had not, and to keep by force what treachery
had won. It had all seemed so easy and desirable, this pursuit of
power, this scheming for a throne, in the days of preparation; when
suddenly the coup had to be made, and responsibility to be
assumed, it was not so pleasant.
Doubtless it was a shrewd knowledge of the usurper’s character that
gave Irromar confidence to put his head into the lion’s mouth. At the
same time, he was well armed, both for attack and defence, with the
knowledge he held.
On receiving the somewhat astounding message, Ferdinand
hesitated. His first impulse was that of the bully; to order the arrest of
this formidable outlaw. Then his chronic feeling of insecurity
prompted him to hear what the visitor had to communicate. Such a
man had not come boldly there without good reason, and he could
easily be arrested after the interview. Accordingly, he gave orders for
a guard to be in readiness and for the Count to be admitted to an
audience.
With an affectation of homage which scarcely concealed his bold
confidence, Irromar entered the royal presence, and, having bowed
low, stood before the Usurper in the easy fearlessness of conscious
power. Ferdinand had a set frown on his sharp, gambler’s face; he
might as well have thought to melt a rock by frowning at it, as
thereby to intimidate the strong, reckless nature confronting him.
Perhaps he felt this, as, with an effort at self-assertion, he bid the
Count say what had brought him thither.
“I have come on a matter which is for your Majesty’s ear alone,” was
the sturdy reply.
Ferdinand affected to hesitate, then motioned his curious circle to a
distance. “Now speak out, Count, and briefly.”
But Irromar dropped his strong vibrating voice almost to a whisper,
as he bent forward to the King. “It is of your Majesty’s cousin, Prince
Ludwig, that I have come here to speak!”
He watched closely the effect of his words, and saw nothing but a
curious, indefinable expression flash across his hearer’s face. But it
was enough. And although Ferdinand’s next remark was made in a
tone of studied indifference, Count Irromar knew that the hit was
more than a touch.
“Well? You know, perhaps, what has become of him? His fate?”
Irromar bowed assent. “He is at this moment in my power: a prisoner
in my castle in the Teufelswald.”
If the news gave Ferdinand an uncomfortable thrill, he did not show
it. The pale face, with its stiff yellow moustache and beard, remained
impassive. Only, in the eyes there was a light of fierce concern.
Perhaps, after all, the knowledge that one phase of his uncertainty
was at an end came as a relief to him.
“Well?” Ferdinand had now to use his cunning; he would let
suggestions come from the other side.
“I thought,” the Count answered readily, “that the information might
be of vital interest to your Majesty.”
“In what way, Count?”
“It is not for me to dictate the use your Majesty should make of it.”
His guard was good; it would have to be drawn out and weakened.
“And yet I dare be sworn,” Ferdinand returned, with his cunning
smile, “that you had a use for it in your mind, or you would hardly
have ventured hither.”
Irromar understood the invitation. “Perhaps, sire, a use which may
be to the advantage of both of us,” he replied coolly.
Ferdinand was leaning sideways in his chair, with his hand playing at
his sparse beard; it was a demeanour of sly reserve. “We should like
to have your views, Count, as to this double advantage,” he said.
“Certainly, sire,” Irromar replied, playing his part with every outward
sign of deference. “You will, perhaps, graciously pardon me if I
express them too bluntly; but the position and opportunity are critical,
and plain speaking fits them best.”
Ferdinand gave a quick, impatient nod of authority, and the Count
proceeded.
“The Prince, is, as I have said, my prisoner, secretly hidden away
where no man, unless I choose, can ever find him. He fell into my
hands by an accident, and the fact is practically a secret which need
never be known, save to those whose interest would be to ignore it.
To all intents, he is dead and buried. It is for your Majesty to say
whether he shall ever come to life again.”
He paused. “Go on,” Ferdinand said curtly.
“As to your Majesty’s interest and wishes in the matter,” Irromar
continued, in the same tone of guarded deference, which yet
seemed to mock as it flattered, “I do not presume to make a
suggestion, or anticipate what may be in your Majesty’s mind. All
that I wish to put forward is my hearty willingness to serve you, sire,
in this matter. And, that you may trust me.”
Ferdinand, revolving keenly the crisis, smiled with a purposeful scorn
which hid the inner working of his mind. “Confidence in Count
Irromar is a somewhat unreasonable demand, methinks,” he
observed.
“Without a guarantee, yes?” was the ready rejoinder. “It suggests the
second and minor advantage of the situation; that which affects my
poor self.”
“Ah?” Ferdinand was indifferently curious. Perhaps he felt he could,
if expedient, secure that guarantee without the Count’s active co-
operation.
“The very disrepute of my antecedents,” Irromar went on, with the
confidence arising from a strong position, “is, although it naturally
appears to the contrary, the very guarantee for my liberty. Your
Majesty is justly incredulous; but let me explain away the apparent
absurdity. In a word, I am sick of my present outlawry, legal and
moral. My one great desire is to rehabilitate myself, to take up once
more the position to which I was born, and which, in my hot-headed
madness, I chose to throw away. There is but one hand from which I
can hope to receive back what I have squandered, the good name,
the noble position; but one countenance to which I can look for
pardon and favour. If once that hand is held out, that countenance
turned favourably towards me, am I likely to reject that royal
generosity and return to my dog’s life? Now, sire, have I made my
meaning plain?”
“You have—quite plain,” Ferdinand answered. Then he paused, his
manner seeming to command silence on the other’s part as well.
Once or twice he glanced sharply at the Count’s face, that strong,
keenly determined face. He was scheming rapidly, vaguely,
uncomfortably. The crisis for which he had been preparing himself
was, now that it had suddenly arisen, rather more than he could
confidently meet. And his discomposure was due less to the urgency
of the situation than to the manner of its announcement, and, above
all, to the man who set it so boldly before him. For during the whole
interview he had been oppressed and irritated by the sense of his
inferiority to the Count, an inferiority none the less galling in that it
was of evil; such better qualities as they may have possessed did
not enter into the question. This man’s personality and character
were dominant; their owner looked down from a higher plane of evil
upon the weak tool of political intriguers, seated uneasily on his
stolen throne.
But, apart from purely personal considerations, the manifest
superiority forced this question upon Ferdinand. Would it be wise for
him to put himself in the power of this resolute, cunning spirit? The
Count’s argument was plausible enough, but what deep scheme
might not lurk behind it? Had Irromar shown himself a weaker man,
Ferdinand would probably have employed him to put his awkward
cousin out of the way, and then taken the obvious means of securing
his ever-lasting silence. But, somehow, as he looked at his visitor
and mentally gauged him, he could not see in him an easy victim.
Still, for the moment, power was on the King’s side, only he must,
indeed, be careful how he let it slip away. At any rate, the matter was
too difficult for an off-hand decision; he would take counsel with a
more astute mind than his own; as it was, he and this master-spirit
were unevenly matched. And in the meantime he would gratify and
avenge his wounded vanity by showing his power.
So, with a deepening frown, he at length broke the tense pause.
“You are a bold man, Count, to come here and make this proposition
to us. For what may have prompted you to this temerity, the wild life
you have led may, perhaps, be responsible.”
Both men gave a smile, and the Count’s produced the effect which
the King’s vainly intended.
“Nobody,” Ferdinand continued, “but yourself would have conceived
so bold a step. No one in any but our position would have seemed to
invite it.”
“Your Majesty will hardly blame me for seizing a chance so
momentous to both,” Irromar returned, bluffly.
“At least,” Ferdinand replied, guardedly, “we cannot blame you for
hastening to impart to us news so important. That may weigh with us
in the view we shall take in our judgment of you.”
The Count was quick enough to see the line Ferdinand was taking,
and, with the impetuosity of a strong, impatient nature, he set about
brushing aside the barrier of shuffling behind which the King was
entrenching himself.
“There is scarcely time or room for the question of judgment to come
in, sire,” he said, emphatically. “I am a man of action, accustomed to
go straightway to the point at issue. This matter clearly admits of no
temporizing. Your Majesty’s judgment of me is at the moment of little
consequence. My all-important quality is that I am the jailer of the
one person in the world whose condition must supremely affect your
Majesty’s welfare.”
“That,” replied Ferdinand, with a purposeful show of scorn, “is a
matter upon which we do not invite your opinion. The King of Drax-
Beroldstein must not be dictated to by the outlaw of the Teufelswald.”
The Count flushed purple. “The King——,” he began hotly, then
checked the words at his lips. Doubtless he saw Ferdinand’s object
in provoking him, and resolved to meet him at his own game. “I
should be the last man to presume to usurp the functions of your
Majesty’s advisers,” he said, with a significant smile, “or interfere,
unbidden, with aught that concerns you. I fear that already, in my
zeal, I may have been guilty of officiousness. Is it, then, your
pleasure, sire, that I set Prince Ludwig free?”
Ferdinand had settled his course, and, that once accomplished,
could keep to it firmly enough. “That,” he answered, with an
assumption of dignity, “is a question for our advisers. It is not to be
determined in a moment, certainly not at the suggestion of Count
Irromar. We are not unmindful of your zeal, Count, and shall take it
into consideration in dealing with you. But for the moment we must,
as you will understand, at least make a show of doing our duty. You
have set our laws at defiance, you have been the very scourge of a
wide district of our kingdom. You”—and here a peculiar sneering
smile spread over his face—“you, who have taken upon yourself so
boldly to advise us, will recognize that we cannot afford to reward
your long list of black deeds with immediate tokens of our favour. It
would raise an easy and hideous suspicion. It would at once brand
us as our cousin’s murderer. No! Policy of State must stand before
all things, and that policy demands your arrest.”
All through the speech Irromar’s face had been growing darker, and
at the last word he made a swift gesture of rage.
“Arrest? Your Majesty is joking!”
It was all he could say, but there was clearly no jest in Ferdinand’s
crafty face as he signed to the group that, in scarcely veiled curiosity,
stood apart. He had given his orders, and the men were ready. At a
word from an alert official, Count Irromar, inwardly raging, and
frowning threats, found himself surrounded and a prisoner.
“Your Majesty,” he cried darkly, “will do well to consider this step you
are taking.”
Ferdinand waved his hand with a gesture of dismissal. “We will see
you again, Count; you understand?” he said significantly, as he rose
and walked away.

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Introduction to Semiconductor Physics and Devices

Fundamentals of Semiconductor Devices (2nd Edition)

Semiconductor Physics and Devices Solution Manual 4th

Organic Electronics for Electrochromic Materials and

Stress and Strain Engineering at Nanoscale in

Solutions Manual for Semiconductor Physics and Devices

Emerging Low-Power Semiconductor Devices: Applications

Editor-in-Chief: M. S. Shur ISSN: 1793-1274

Vol. 63: Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Electronics and Devices

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Selected Topics in Electronics and Systems — Vol. 63

With the dawn of Gallium Oxide (Ga2O3) and Aluminum Gallium

Substrate Effects in GaN-on-Silicon RF Device Technology

Gallium Oxide Field Effect Transistors — Establishing New Frontiers

High Efficiency AlN/GaN HEMTs for Q-Band Applications with an

Recent Progress in Gallium Oxide and Diamond Based High Power

Application of Atom Probe Tomography for Advancing GaN Based

β-(Al,Ga)2O3 for High Power Applications — A Review on Material

Theory of High Field Transport in β-Ga2O3

Ultra-Wide Bandgap AlxGa1-xN Channel Transistors

On the Progress Made in GaN Vertical Device Technology

Modeling and Simulation of Quasi-Ballistic III-Nitride Transistors for

Recent Progress in III-Nitride Tunnel Junction-Based Optoelectronics

The influence of the semiconducting Si substrate on the performance of GaN-on-Si

Keywords: GaN devices; RF loss; parasitic channel; highly-resistive Si substrate;

2. Parasitic Channel Formation and RF Loss in

For instance, several reports have identified the diffusion of Ga-

1) the vapor phase directly, most notably in the case of Al as an AlN

The interface between Si and AlN is expected to be highly

Similarly, Simoen et al. have undertaken detailed DLTS and ESR

2.2. Effect of Parasitic Channel on RF

3. Back-bias Effects and Buffer-induced

3.2. Substrate Depletion and Back-biasing in

The substrate sweep rates for which the HR-Si is expected to be

3.3. Suppression of Buffer-induced Current

4. Temperature-dependent Substrate Loss in

4.2. Simulation Framework and Experimental

where εr is the relative permittivity of the substrate, λg is the guide

and the effective dielectric constant εeff is calculated using

where k and k’ are calculated respectively as,

and k1 and k1’ as,

for 0≤K/(k)/K(k’)≤1 and 0≤k≤1/√2.

To further verify that the simulation fully captures the physics of

4.3. Substrate Loss – Temperature, Frequency

“YOU have taken an unfair advantage, Princess, of my willingness to

IT was with considerable surprise that King Ferdinand of Drax-

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