The development of gallium nitride (GaN) power devices requires a reliable selective-area doping process, which is difficult to achieve because of ongoing challenges associated with the required etch-then-regrow process. The presence of silicon (Si) impurities of unclear physical origin at the GaN regrowth interface has proven to be a major bottleneck. Furthermore, this paper investigates the origin of Si contamination at the epitaxial GaN-on-GaN interface and demonstrates an approach that markedly reduces its impact on device performance. An optimized dry-etching approach combined with UV-ozone and chemical etching is shown to greatly reduce the Si concentration levels at the regrowth interface, and a significant improvement in a reverse leakage current in vertical GaN-based p–n diodes is achieved.
Fu, Kai, et al. "The impact of interfacial Si contamination on GaN-on-GaN regrowth for high power vertical devices." Applied Physics Letters, vol. 118, no. 22, May. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0049473
Fu, Kai, Fu, Houqiang, Deng, Xuguang, Su, Po-Yi, Liu, Hanxiao, Hatch, Kevin, Cheng, Chi-Yin, Messina, Daniel, Meidanshahi, Reza Vatan, Peri, Prudhvi, Yang, Chen, Yang, Tsung-Han, Montes, Jossue, Zhou, Jingan, Qi, Xin, Goodnick, Stephen M., Ponce, Fernando A., Smith, David J., Nemanich, Robert, & Zhao, Yuji (2021). The impact of interfacial Si contamination on GaN-on-GaN regrowth for high power vertical devices. Applied Physics Letters, 118(22). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0049473
Fu, Kai, Fu, Houqiang, Deng, Xuguang, et al., "The impact of interfacial Si contamination on GaN-on-GaN regrowth for high power vertical devices," Applied Physics Letters 118, no. 22 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0049473
@article{osti_1831086,
author = {Fu, Kai and Fu, Houqiang and Deng, Xuguang and Su, Po-Yi and Liu, Hanxiao and Hatch, Kevin and Cheng, Chi-Yin and Messina, Daniel and Meidanshahi, Reza Vatan and Peri, Prudhvi and others},
title = {The impact of interfacial Si contamination on GaN-on-GaN regrowth for high power vertical devices},
annote = {The development of gallium nitride (GaN) power devices requires a reliable selective-area doping process, which is difficult to achieve because of ongoing challenges associated with the required etch-then-regrow process. The presence of silicon (Si) impurities of unclear physical origin at the GaN regrowth interface has proven to be a major bottleneck. Furthermore, this paper investigates the origin of Si contamination at the epitaxial GaN-on-GaN interface and demonstrates an approach that markedly reduces its impact on device performance. An optimized dry-etching approach combined with UV-ozone and chemical etching is shown to greatly reduce the Si concentration levels at the regrowth interface, and a significant improvement in a reverse leakage current in vertical GaN-based p–n diodes is achieved.},
doi = {10.1063/5.0049473},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1831086},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
issn = {ISSN 0003-6951},
number = {22},
volume = {118},
place = {United States},
publisher = {American Institute of Physics (AIP)},
year = {2021},
month = {05}}