Wet chemical etching of AlN

Journal Article · Mon Aug 21 00:00:00 EDT 1995 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.114980· OSTI ID:90466

Mileham, J R; Pearton, S J; Abernathy, C R; MacKenzie, J D ^[1]; Shul, R J; Kilcoyne, S P ^[2]

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1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 (United States)
2. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)

Single-crystal AlN grown on Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} is found to be wet etched by AZ400K photoresist developer solution, in which the active component is KOH. The etching is thermally activated with an activation energy of 15.5{plus_minus}0.4 kcal mol{sup {minus}1}, and the etch rate is found to be strongly dependent on the crystalline quality of the AlN. There was no dependence of etch rate on solution agitation or any crystallographic dependence noted, and the etching is selective over other binary group III nitrides (GaN, InN) and substrate materials such as Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} and GaAs. {copyright} {ital 1995} {ital American} {ital Institute} {ital of} {ital Physics}.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratory
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 90466
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 67; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ACTIVATION ENERGY
ALUMINIUM NITRIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
ETCHING
SOLUTIONS
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE