The thermal conductivity of undoped, n-type, and p-type GaN films deposited on (0001) substrates of sapphire was measured by the 3-omega method in the temperature range between 215 and 300 K. The thickness, thermal conductivity, and heat capacity of the individual layers were used to simulate the experimental value of the increment in temperature of the heater using a multilayer model. The thermal conductivity of undoped GaN film was found to be much higher than that of p-type film. Also, the thermal conductivity of n-type GaN film was slightly smaller than that of p-type film. Modeling of the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity in the films showed that phonon-dopant and three-phonon umklapp scattering are important. Smaller thickness and hence smaller volume fraction of the film with lower dislocation density was also found to be responsible for lower thermal conductivity in n- and p-type GaN films. (c) 2008 American Vacuum Society.