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Mechanism of Ti/Al/Ti/W Au-free ohmic contacts to AlGaN/GaN heterostructures via pre-ohmic recess etching and low temperature annealing

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4939190· OSTI ID:22486308
; ; ;  [1]; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;  [2]
  1. State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054 (China)
  2. Key Laboratory of Microelectronics Devices and Integrated Technology, Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029 (China)
The physical mechanism of low-thermal-budget Au-free ohmic contacts to AlGaN/GaN heterostructures is systematically investigated with current-voltage, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and temperature-dependent contact resistivity characterizations. With a low annealing temperature of 600 °C, pre-ohmic recess etching of the AlGaN barrier down to several nanometers is demonstrated to be an effective method to reduce the contact resistance between Ti/Al/Ti/W ohmic metals and AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. However, further over recess of the AlGaN barrier leads to only sidewall contact to 2D electron gas channel and thus degraded contact performance. It is verified by temperature-dependent contact resistivity measurements that field emission (tunneling) dominates the current transport mechanism in Au-free ohmic contacts with AlGaN barrier partially and over recessed, while both field emission and thermionic emission contribute to traditional Ti/Al/Ni/Au ohmic contacts to AlGaN/GaN heterostructures that annealed at high temperature (850 °C)
OSTI ID:
22486308
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 26 Vol. 107; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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