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The problem of precise and soft lunar landing in a pre-specified target location is solved using a numerical scheme based on indirect approach. In indirect approach, the problem is transformed into a two-point boundary value problem using Pontryagin’s principle and solved. The challenge in the indirect approach lies in finding suitable initial co-states with no prior knowledge available about them. In the proposed numerical scheme, the differential transformation (DT) technique is employed to determine the unknown initial co-states using the information on the target site and the flight time. The flight time, the only unknown, is handled by differential evolution, an optimization technique. The novel computational scheme combines differential transformation and differential evolution techniques and uses differential transformation in multi-steps, to ensure the precise landing at the target site. The guidelines that help fixing the bounds for the flight time are provided. The proposed scheme is uniformly valid for various performance measures such as minimum fuel, minimum control and minimum time. Also, it is capable of introducing coasting during descent while maximizing the landing mass.

Two guidance schemes (i) fuel-optimal (ii) energy-optimal to realize soft landing at a desired location on the moon are developed using the optimal control laws. The optimal control laws are obtained by solving a two-point boundary value problem formulated based on Pontryagin’s principle. The guidance laws, adapted from the optimal control laws, are obtained as a function of unknown co-state variables. Differential Transformation (DT) technique is employed to determine the unknown co-states at each time instant of landing trajectory using the information on the current vehicle state, target landing site (loaded on-board apriori) and the time-to-go. The numerical integration of co-state dynamics is avoided due to the DT based approach. The time-to-go, a critical parameter for any guidance scheme, is computed and updated real time using a simple strategy which uses the current and end states. The simple strategy for time-to-go works well even when the shape of the trajectory is nonlinear. Extensive analysis is carried out to evaluate and compare the proposed guidance schemes. Further, the proposed schemes are compared with other popular guidance schemes. The DT based proposed schemes help quantify the landing masses for fuel-optimal and energy-optimal objectives. Other features of the proposed schemes are that they do not assume constant gravity field and independent of reference trajectory.

Despite being widely investigated for their memristive behavior, ferroelectrics are barely studied as channel materials in field-effect transistor (FET) configurations. In this work, we use multilayer α-In2Se3 to realize a ferroelectric channel semiconductor FET, i.e., FeS-FET, whose gate-triggered and polarization-induced resistive switching is then exploited to mimic an artificial synapse. The FeS-FET exhibits key signatures of a synapse such as excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic current, potentiation/depression, and paired pulsed facilitation. Multiple stable conductance states obtained by tuning the device are then used as synaptic weights to demonstrate pattern recognition by invoking a hidden layer perceptron model. Detailed artificial neural network (ANN) simulations are performed on binary scale MNIST data digits, invoking 784 input (28 × 28 pixels) and 10 output neurons which are used in the training of 42 000 MNIST data digits. By updating the synaptic weights with conductance weight values on 18 000 digits, we achieved a successful recognition rate of 93% on the testing data. Introduction of 0.10 variance of noise pixels results in an accuracy of more than 70% showing the strong fault-tolerant nature of the conductance states. These synaptic functionalities, learning rules, and device to system-level simulation results based on α-In2Se3 could facilitate the development of more complex neuromorphic hardware systems based on FeS-FETs.

This article reports on the experimental and analytical determination of the optimum carbon concentration in GaN to achieve enhanced breakdown in AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). The lateral breakdown voltage increases when carbon doping is increased from $3\times 10^{{18}}$ to 1019 cm−3 beyond which it decreases, whereas there is no substantial enhancement in the vertical breakdown voltage with carbon doping. We invoke carrier statistics in a compensated semiconductor vis-a-vis the formation energy of carbon-occupying Ga (or N) vacancies to explain the observed buffer leakage. Temperature-dependent data indicate that the buffer leakage current is due to hopping transport, the activation energy of which yields the positions of the defect states within the bandgap. The increase in buffer leakage beyond optimum C concentration is attributed to the formation of shallow donor traps by carbon atoms occupying Ga vacancies (CGa). The observations correlated with the relative intensities of the defect-mediated peaks in the cathodoluminescence (CL) data of the samples. Based on our findings, a C doping beyond 1019 cm−3 is not recommended for GaN buffers in order to achieve high breakdown voltages.

This letter demonstrates heterogeneous stacking through postfabrication transfer of a thin layer of AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) and Si metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) onto a copper heat spreader. Both devices were fabricated on silicon substrate using separate process flows. Transfer of ~3- $\mu \text{m}$ GaN layer grown on silicon, however, leads to cracks due to the high-stress gradients arising from large lattice and thermal mismatch. Electroplated copper was used to improve mechanical strength, allowing transfer of the GaN layer using Cu–In bonding. Use of electroplated copper ensures high thermal conductivity to the bonded heat spreader. Next, an ultrathin silicon layer ( $\sim 1.5~\mu \text{m}$ ) with functional NMOS transistors was stacked above the GaN devices using a cost-effective epoxy bonding approach. The Cu–In bonding not only improved thermal dissipation but also led to enhanced performance of the GaN device due to the compressive stress induced by the bonding process. This compressive stress will also provide reliability against coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch at higher operating temperatures.

Despite being widely investigated for their memristive behavior, ferroelectrics are barely studied as channel materials in field-effect transistor (FET) configurations. In this work, we use multilayer α-In

We investigate the vertical leakage mechanism in metal–organic chemical vapor deposition-grown carbon (C)-doped AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) on 6-in silicon wafer. Substrate bias polarity-dependent ${I}$ – ${V}_{s}$ , temperature-dependent fitting, and band diagram analysis pointed to the Poole–Frenkel (P–F) type of conduction mechanism for vertical transport in the devices with breakdown as high as 580 V for a buffer of $\textsf {4}~\mu \text{m}$ . Trap activation energy of 0.61 eV was estimated from the P–F fitting which matches well with values reported in the literature. We propose that higher dislocation density leads to shallower traps in the buffer and build an analytical model of dislocation-mediated vertical leakage around this. The variation in leakage as a function of dislocation density at a given field is predicted and is found to be the most abrupt in the range from $\sim 10^{\textsf {7}}$ to $\sim 10^{\textsf {9}}$ cm $^{-\textsf {2}}$ of dislocation density. This can be attributed to a sharp decrease in trap activation energy in the above range of dislocation density, possibly due to complex formation between point defects and dislocations.

The talk will describe the defect-to-device performance correlations for optoelectronic and power devices on hetero-epitaxially grown III-nitride epi-layers on silicon and sapphire. While UV detectors and power electronic devices might seem far apart, we see similarities between the defect origins of dark current in the former and leakage currents in the latter. Both have their origins in crystal growth. The first part of the work focuses on the correlation between performance parameters of vertical deep-ultraviolet photodetectors on c-plane sapphire and the density of extended defects vis-a-vis screw and edge dislocations. Through a careful optimization of nucleation density on the growth surface, state-of-the-art crystalline quality AlN epi-layers were grown. This led to the realization of record performance 289 nm p-i-n photodiodes with zero-bias quantum efficiency of 92 %, leakage current below 1 nA at 100 V and breakdown field in excess of 6 MV/cm. Performance of III-nitride power devices on silicon, on the other hand, was found to be more sensitive to structural defects such as surface pits as compared to dislocations. By utilizing a two-temperature growth technique which involved an AlN layer grown at high temperatures, a significant reduction in the pit density could be achieved. This resulted in three-orders of magnitude reduction in lateral as well as vertical leakage in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) on silicon. To achieve a further reduction in the reverse leakage current and an enhancement in the device breakdown voltage, point defect control also becomes important. Carbon doping to reduce the background n-carrier concentration in the GaN epilayers is discussed as one of the possible approaches. Reduction of pit density and C-incorporation cumulatively led to the realization of 2 MV/cm vertical breakdown field in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on silicon.

In this work, we have investigated the material properties of PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) amorphous Silicon nitride (SiN) films and the influence of deposition conditions on gate-leakage increase of AlGaN/GaN HEMT’s (High Electron Mobility Transistor) after passivation. We have studied the effect of gas flow ratio (SiH4/NH3) on the structural and compositional properties of SiNx deposited on crystalline Silicon (Si). Based on the inference, electrical properties of the SiNx films were examined by depositing on AlGaN/GaN HEMT as a passivation layer. The optimized SiNx which is N-rich with a refractive index of 1.83, tensile stress of 681 MPa and NH3/SiH4 ratio of 18 shows only a 1.2x variation in gate leakage, 1.4x increase in gm, minimum left shift of 0.03 V in Vth and 1.26x increase Ion/Ioff ratio after passivation. We believe that the 3x reduction in Si-H bonds resulting in reduced interface traps at SiN/AlGaN interface is the reason for the minimal increase in gate leakage after passivation.

We report on the characterization of the interfaces of Al2O3/InAlN/GaN HEMT structure grown on 200 mm diameter silicon using conductance dispersion technique. Irreversible threshold voltage (VTH) shift of up to +similar to 2.5 V was observed due to the gate stress induced activation of acceptor states. Further, frequency dependent VTH shift during capacitance voltage measurements were also recorded due to the presence of slow traps at InAlN/GaN interface. The conductance dispersion indicated the presence of acceptor traps of the order of similar to 4 x 10(12) to 7 x 10(13) cm(-2) eV(-1) with a time constant of similar to 10 to 350 ls at the InAlN/GaN interface. Trap density at the Al2O3/InAlN was found to be in similar range but with a time constant of similar to 2 ms. The presence of high density of traps at InAlN/GaN interface is attributed to the unavoidable growth interruption before the start of InAlN growth. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We report on the study of step-graded AlGaN transition layers (TLs) in metalorganic chemical vapor deposition-grown GaN HEMT-on-silicon toward improving the breakdown field while minimizing buffer-induced current dispersion. The transition layers include three AlGaN epi-layers of 75%, 50%, and 25% Al-content, downgraded from bottom to top. The growth temperature and carbon doping are varied independently to assess the transition layer's role in reducing current collapse and leakage current. We observe that the introduction of High Temperature (HT) AlGaN increases the lateral but decreases the vertical leakage, the latter being attributed to the reduction of V-pit density. Temperature-dependent data indicate that the increased lateral (mesa) leakage current in HT AlGaN layers is due to space charge limited current, the activation energy of which yields the positions of the defect states within the bandgap. The increase in mesa leakage current in HT AlGaN layers is attributed to the formation of point defects such as oxygen in nitrogen site (ON) and VGa–ON complexes. The introduction of C-doping in the top AlGaN transition layer with 25% Al-content helps reduce lateral leakage in both mesa and 3-terminal configurations. The combination of HT AlGaN (75% Al-content) with C-doped AlGaN (25% Al-content) is found to be the optimal TL design that yielded a minimum buffer-induced current dispersion with a 65% channel recovery when the substrate was swept to −300 V and back; moreover, it also enabled a vertical breakdown field of 2.05 MV/cm defined at 1 A/cm2 for a buffer thickness of 1.65 μm.

Abort system is initiated to take the Crew Module (CM) away from the launch vehicle in case of an emergency at lift-off or at any point of time after launch for a mission with crew onboard. Crew Escape System (CES)-based abort is carried out from launch pad and during the atmospheric phase of ascent flight. The design and operation of CES play a crucial role in providing abort capability for escape from launch vehicle and return of the crew back to Earth during critical phase of ascent flight. CES motors are used to pull CM away from the launch vehicle during this mode of abort. Mission simulation and analysis is necessary for the design of CES-based abort mission and for its configuration. This article discusses the mission design, challenges faced during the design and strategies formulated towards the successful execution of Pad Abort Test.

Limiting buffer layer current leakage is essential for the realization of high breakdown fields in GaN-on-Si high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). In this report, we demonstrate the importance of controlling the surface morphology of the AlN nucleation layer (NL) in limiting this leakage. Testing on a self-consistent series of samples grown under two different AlN NL conditions revealed the presence of leakage paths within the epilayers grown using a single temperature AlN NL owing to the presence of surface pits. The introduction of a higher temperature AlN in the NL drastically reduced the pit density and led to a large reduction (>103) in the lateral and vertical buffer leakage in HEMT structures. Using conductive atomic force microscopy, secondary ion mass spectroscopy, and temperature-dependent carrier transport measurements, we confirm that these pits—which originate in the AlN NL, thread vertically, and propagate into the device structures—are associated with leakage paths, thus reducing the field that can be dropped across the epilayers. This is explained by invoking preferential oxygen segregation at their side-facets. It is shown that when a pit-free surface is maintained, a vertical field of 1.6 MV/cm can be achieved for HEMTs. This study is expected to benefit the development of high-performance GaN HEMTs in moving toward the theoretical breakdown field of III-nitrides.

Leakage mediated by GaN buffer traps is identified and studied using a novel characterization technique. Through back-gating measurement, the effect of buffer trap states on the lateral leakage is determined by probing mesa-isolated Ohmic pads. Time-dependent leakage measurements are carried out to study the extent of the increase in buffer leakage due to the traps. It is observed that the mesa leakage is more prominent at very slow sweep rates and high substrate bias. The temperature-dependent measurements show that the mesa leakage and the substrate leakage are characterized by thermionic emission from the traps with an activation barrier of 0.34 and 0.2 eV, respectively.

Use of low work function metal to lower the contact resistance on unpinned MIS contacts is presented. Through TCAD simulations and experimental data, it is established that conducting interfacial layers along with low work function metals like Ytterbium instead of Titanium for MIS contacts results in lower contact resistivity as well as an improvement in ION in ultra-scaled 14 nm Germanium-on-Insulator (GOI) n-channel FinFET devices. The benefit is larger for resistance-limited scaled FinFETs at the 10 and 7 nm nodes. Mixed-mode TCAD simulation of a self-loaded inverter circuit is used to demonstrate an improvement in overall energy-delay performance.

For safe and precise lunar landing it is required to guide the landing module to a pre-specified target location within specified accuracy limits by bringing down the landing velocity to near zero level. To achieve this, the thrust vector needs to be steered in an optimum way to minimize the fuel consumption. In this paper, a set of lunar centered 3 dimensional cartesian coordinates are used as state variables to represent the landing module translational dynamics and to ensure the soft landing at a specified target location. The precise landing trajectory design problem is formulated as an optimal control problem with constant thrust level and it is transformed into a two point boundary value problem(TPBVP) using the indirect approach based on Pontryagin's principle. The solution procedure of this TPBVP uses Differential Evolution, an evolutionary optimization technique. For real-time trajectory planning, few guidance laws are evaluated against the optimal control law obtained. The soft landing trajectory is propagated with control angles computed by the guidance algorithm to achieve the target conditions. The optimum fuel requirements with constant thrust to achieve different specified target conditions using the optimal control law are compared with fuel requirements obtained from simulated trajectory with guidance algorithm. Also the trajectory design is carried out with different constant thrust levels and the performance of the guidance laws is analyzed.

Flush air data sensing system (FADS) forms a mission-critical subsystem in re-entry vehicles. It makes use of surface pressure measurements from the nose cap of the vehicle for deriving air data parameters such as angle of attack, angle of sideslip, Mach number, etc. of the vehicle. These parameters are used by the flight control and guidance systems, and also assist in the overall mission management. The overall system engineering of FADS, including selection of pressure transducers, tubing size, port geometry, FADS algorithm and associated processing electronics along with the integration scheme is addressed in this article. Details of the qualification tests carried out in wind tunnel for end-to-end verification of the entire FADS system are covered in brief. Majority of the tests were carried out in a low-speed wind tunnel at a wind speed of 65 m/s (Mach number 0.2). The flight performance of FADS is also discussed in this article.

We demonstrate the benefit of using a low work-function metal (Yb) to lower the barrier height and hence, the contact resistivity (ρ c ) in unpinned metal-interfacial layer-semiconductor (MIS) contacts on n-type Ge and Si. Metal/doped TiO 2−x /n-Ge and n-Si MIS diodes fabricated with varying TiO 2−x thickness (1–5 nm) exhibit higher (upto 100X) current densities and lower contact barrier heights (upto 30%) for Yb versus Ti metallization. A combination of low work-function Yb, doped TiO 2−x with low conduction band offsets w.r.t Si and Ge, and high substrate doping( n+-Si:2×1020 cm−3 and n+-Ge:2.5×1019 cm−3) is shown to result in ultra-low ρ c values of 2.1×10−8 Ω.cm2 (Si) and 1.4×10−8 Ω.cm2 (Ge) for Yb/TiO 2−x contacts, significantly lower than Ti/TiO 2−x control devices, and the best reported contact resistivity on n-Ge till date.

Flush Air Data sensing System (FADS) forms a mission critical sub system for future reusable space transportation systems. FADS makes use of surface pressure measurements from the nose cap of the vehicle for deriving the air data parameters of the vehicle like angle of attack, angle of sideslip, Mach number, Altitude, etc. These parameters are used by the control and guidance system of the vehicle for reentry flight management as well as for subsequent mission phases upto landing. The altitude information is used in re-entry vehicles for gain scheduling, terminal area energy management and for homing the vehicle to the runway for landing. The FADS algorithm computes free stream static pressure from the surface pressure measurements made at the nose-cap. This paper addresses the computation of altitude from the free stream static pressure computed by FADS algorithm. Using the International Standard Atmosphere, hydrostatic equation, perfect gas law and temperature lapse rate equation, estimate of the vehicle altitude is obtained. The accuracy of the estimated altitude is of the order of 55 meter upto an altitude of 2 km. For higher altitudes of 5 km 10 km and 15 km, the accuracy of 235 meters, 565 meters and 695 meters is achieved respectively. Simulation results show that the proposed method is suitable for real time implementation.

The problem of soft landing on Moon is formulated and solved using different solution schemes. The solution scheme consists of one of the two approaches i) direct ii) indirect and one of different optimization techniques (viz. gradient based and gradient free techniques). Gradient free (Particle Swarm optimization and Differential Evolution) and gradient based optimization techniques are explored to solve the problem for direct and indirect approaches. In indirect approach, the optimal control problem is transformed into a two point boundary value problem (TPBVP) using Pontryagin’s minimum principle and the appropriate initial costates are selected using different optimization techniques. The performances of these optimization techniques are evaluated for the indirect approach for soft landing trajectory design problem. In direct approach, it is transformed into a non linear programming (NLP) problem and is solved by using an optimizer. The performance of the direct schemes is compared with indirect schemes. A scheme based on the indirect approach and differential evolution technique is evaluated superior to other options for the soft landing trajectory problem. Also the trajectory design is carried out with different constant thrust levels and their sensitivities are analyzed.

This work demonstrates the benefit of a lower contact barrier height, and hence reduced contact resistivity (rho(c)), using a low work-function metal (Yb) in unpinned metal-interfacial layer-semiconductor (MIS) contacts on n-type Ge. Fermi-level unpinning in MIS contacts on n-Ge is first established by introducing a 2 nm TiO2-x interfacial layer between various contact metals (Yb, Ti, Ni, Pt) and n-Ge. Further, Yb/TiO2,/n-Ge MIS contact diodes exhibit higher current densities (up to 100s