Dry etch damage in inductively coupled plasma exposed GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors

Journal Article · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.118887· OSTI ID:496345

Ren, F ^[1]; Lee, J W; Abernathy, C R; Pearton, S J ^[2]; Constantine, C; Barratt, C ^[3]; Shul, R J ^[4]

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1. Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974 (United States)
2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 (United States)
3. Plasma Therm IP, Saint Petersburg, Florida 33716 (United States)
4. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)

The dc current gain and emitter and base sheet resistance of C-doped GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) have been used to measure damage introduced by exposure to Ar inductively coupled plasmas (ICP). As the ICP source power is increased at fixed rf chuck power, the damage-induced changes in device characteristics are reduced due to a reduction in ion energy. Beyond a particular ICP source power ({approximately}1000 W for 50 W rf chuck power), the damage increases due to the increase in ion flux, even though the ion energy is low ({lt}30 eV). These results are a clear demonstration of the advantage of high ion density plasmas for pattern transfer in damage-sensitive minority carrier devices such as HBTs.{copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratory
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 496345
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 70; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALUMINIUM ARSENIDES
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ELECTRON CYCLOTRON-RESONANCE
ETCHING
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
ION DENSITY
JUNCTION TRANSISTORS
PLASMA