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Obituary

Vladimir Dmitriev
03 December 1955 - 06 January 2008
Technologies and Devices International, Inc
Washington, DC


Submitted by Michael Shur

Published on 25 February 2008

Founder, President, and CEO of Technologies and Devices International, Inc. (TDI), Dr. Vladimir Dmitriev passed away from a heart attack on January 6, 2008. He was only 52. His untimely death came as a shock to his family, friends, and colleagues.

Dr. Dmitriev was one of the leading researchers of wide band gap materials and devices. He received his MSEE degree from LETI, a premier Russian engineering school (1978), PhD (1986) and Doctor of Science (1996) degrees in semiconductor physics from Russia's famous Ioffe Institute. Prior to TDI, he had been involved in the development of various epitaxial technologies for ultraviolet and visible LEDs and power electronics at Ioffe Institute, Howard University, and Cree. He published more than 170 scientific papers and presented nearly 90 invited and contributed talks at scientific conferences. His last presentation was on November 2008 at First International Conference on white LEDs and Solid-Stat Lighting in Tokyo. He co-authored 27 patents and 17 pending patents.

In early 1980s, at Ioffe Institute, Vladimir pioneered a new epitaxial growth technique of silicon carbide, which he grew from the melt levitated in the RF electromagnetic field. This new container-free liquid phase epitaxy has allowed improving SiC materials quality and has led to the development of new generations of SiC-based devices including the first SiC high-temperature field effect and bipolar transistors, the first violet LED, and the first SiC varactor. In related work, Vladimir demonstrated that melt growth of SiC could be used to close micropipe defects addressing a major concern in SiC materials. At Howard University, Vladimir did pioneering work in the growth of solid solutions of SiC and AlN utilizing both liquid and vapor phase techniques. This work transitioned into investigations of vapor phase growth of the binaries AlN and GaN. After leaving Howard University, Vladimir worked for Cree where he lead the development of the AlxGa1-xN conductive buffer la!
yer, a key component of the Cree production blue LED s. After leaving Cree, Vladimir worked again at Howard University and in 1997 he founded TDI, Inc. one of the first startup companies in III-N technology with the mission of growing nitride materials by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE).

The main achievements of TDI under Dr. Dmitriev leadership and marked as first in HVPE technology include fabrication of GaN free-standing wafers (1997), p-n GaN diodes (1998), fabrication of AlN free-standing wafers (1999), AlGaN/GaN heterostructures (2000), 3-inch GaN/sapphire template substrates and InGaN/GaN submicron multi-layer structures (2001), 4-inch GaN/sapphire template substrates together with demonstration of AlGaN free-standing wafers and HEMT and UV LED structures (2002), thick crack-free AlN layers on SiC substrates fabricated by novel stress-control HVPE technology (2003), 6-inch AlN/Si epi wafers (2003), UV LEDs emitting at 340 nm and having mW-range of light output power(2003), 6-inch GaN/sapphire epi wafers (2004), AlGaN/sapphire template substrates transparent in UV spectral range at a wavelength longer than 265 nm (2004), 3-inch AlN/SiC template substrates for HEMTs (2005), GaN, AlN and InN nanostructures (nano wires) 2005), demonstration of two-dimension hole gas (2DHG) in AlGaN/GaN based structures (2005), 4-inch AlN/SiC template substrates (2006), GaN-based quantum well (QW) structures (2006), GaN growth with record high growth rate of about 1 mm/hr (2006), InGaN-based blue LEDs (450-480 nm) (2006), InGaN/InGaN superlattice structures (2006), InGaN-based green LEDs (500-510 nm) (2007), non polar a-plane InGaN/r-plane sapphire and a-plane InGaN/a-plane GaN/r-plane sapphire template substrates (2007).
Vladimir was one of the first researchers realizing the potential of III-N technology. He was fascinated with the new materials science and device physics of GaN, AlN, and related semiconductors and invented new techniques for epitaxial growth of these compounds. He was one of the leading scientists and engineers working on HVPE growth. TDI, Inc. has been recently awarded a US Patent on novel HVPE reactor. This innovation allowed TDI to demonstrate the first 6-inch diameter GaN epitaxial films and to produce the first in the world InGaN substrates.

Dr. Dmitriev was one of the leading contributors to and organizer of many key conferences on wide band gap materials and devices. He was initiator and co-organizer of Russian Workshops on nitride semiconductor materials that started since 1997. In 1997 and 1998, he chaired the studies of High Temperature Electronics in Japan and High Temperature Electronics in Europe.
Vladimir had vision and deep understanding of materials and device physics of wide band gap semiconductors. He was a kind and compassionate person and a true scientific and business leader.

He will be greatly missed.

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