Investigation of interfacial impurities in m-plane GaN regrown p-n junctions for high-power vertical electronic devices

Stricklin, Isaac; Monavarian, Morteza; Aragon, Andrew; Pickrell, Greg; Crawford, Mary; Allerman, Andrew; Armstrong, Andrew; Feezell, Daniel F.

doi:10.1117/12.2322005

Title: Investigation of interfacial impurities in m-plane GaN regrown p-n junctions for high-power vertical electronic devices

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Abstract

GaN is an attractive material for high-power electronics due to its wide bandgap and large breakdown field. Verticalgeometry devices are of interest due to their high blocking voltage and small form factor. One challenge for realizing complex vertical devices is the regrowth of low-leakage-current p-n junctions within selectively defined regions of the wafer. Presently, regrown p-n junctions exhibit higher leakage current than continuously grown p-n junctions, possibly due to impurity incorporation at the regrowth interfaces, which consist of c-plane and non-basal planes. Here, we study the interfacial impurity incorporation induced by various growth interruptions and regrowth conditions on m-plane p-n junctions on free-standing GaN substrates. The following interruption types were investigated: (1) sample in the main MOCVD chamber for 10 min, (2) sample in the MOCVD load lock for 10 min, (3) sample outside the MOCVD for 10 min, and (4) sample outside the MOCVD for one week. Regrowth after the interruptions was performed on two different samples under n-GaN and p-GaN growth conditions, respectively. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analysis indicated interfacial silicon spikes with concentrations ranging from 5e16 cm^-3 to 2e18 cm^-3 for the n-GaN growth conditions and 2e16 cm^-3 to 5e18 cm-3 for the p-GaN growth conditions.more »« less

Authors:

Stricklin, Isaac ^[1]; Monavarian, Morteza ^[1]; Aragon, Andrew ^[1]; Pickrell, Greg ^[2]; Crawford, Mary ^[2]; Allerman, Andrew ^[2]; Armstrong, Andrew ^[2]; Feezell, Daniel F. ^[1]

Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Publication Date:: Fri Sep 07 00:00:00 EDT 2018

Research Org.:: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

OSTI Identifier:: 1478066

Report Number(s):: SAND-2018-8839J
Journal ID: ISSN 0277-786X; 666986

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 10754; Journal ID: ISSN 0277-786X

Publisher:: SPIE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 42 ENGINEERING

Citation Formats


                    Stricklin, Isaac, Monavarian, Morteza, Aragon, Andrew, Pickrell, Greg, Crawford, Mary, Allerman, Andrew, Armstrong, Andrew, and Feezell, Daniel F. Investigation of interfacial impurities in m-plane GaN regrown p-n junctions for high-power vertical electronic devices.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
Web.  doi:10.1117/12.2322005.

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                    Stricklin, Isaac, Monavarian, Morteza, Aragon, Andrew, Pickrell, Greg, Crawford, Mary, Allerman, Andrew, Armstrong, Andrew, & Feezell, Daniel F. Investigation of interfacial impurities in m-plane GaN regrown p-n junctions for high-power vertical electronic devices.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2322005

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                    Stricklin, Isaac, Monavarian, Morteza, Aragon, Andrew, Pickrell, Greg, Crawford, Mary, Allerman, Andrew, Armstrong, Andrew, and Feezell, Daniel F. Fri .  
"Investigation of interfacial impurities in m-plane GaN regrown p-n junctions for high-power vertical electronic devices".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2322005.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1478066.

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@article{osti_1478066,

  title        = {Investigation of interfacial impurities in m-plane GaN regrown p-n junctions for high-power vertical electronic devices},

  author       = {Stricklin, Isaac and Monavarian, Morteza and Aragon, Andrew and Pickrell, Greg and Crawford, Mary and Allerman, Andrew and Armstrong, Andrew and Feezell, Daniel F.},

  abstractNote = {GaN is an attractive material for high-power electronics due to its wide bandgap and large breakdown field. Verticalgeometry devices are of interest due to their high blocking voltage and small form factor. One challenge for realizing complex vertical devices is the regrowth of low-leakage-current p-n junctions within selectively defined regions of the wafer. Presently, regrown p-n junctions exhibit higher leakage current than continuously grown p-n junctions, possibly due to impurity incorporation at the regrowth interfaces, which consist of c-plane and non-basal planes. Here, we study the interfacial impurity incorporation induced by various growth interruptions and regrowth conditions on m-plane p-n junctions on free-standing GaN substrates. The following interruption types were investigated: (1) sample in the main MOCVD chamber for 10 min, (2) sample in the MOCVD load lock for 10 min, (3) sample outside the MOCVD for 10 min, and (4) sample outside the MOCVD for one week. Regrowth after the interruptions was performed on two different samples under n-GaN and p-GaN growth conditions, respectively. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analysis indicated interfacial silicon spikes with concentrations ranging from 5e16 cm-3 to 2e18 cm-3 for the n-GaN growth conditions and 2e16 cm-3 to 5e18 cm-3 for the p-GaN growth conditions. Oxygen spikes with concentrations ~1e17 cm-3 were observed at the regrowth interfaces. Carbon impurity levels did not spike at the regrowth interfaces under either set of growth conditions. We have correlated the effects of these interfacial impurities with the reverse leakage current and breakdown voltage of regrown m-plane p-n junctions.},

  doi          = {10.1117/12.2322005},

  journal      = {Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering},

  number       = ,

  volume       = 10754,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Fri Sep 07 00:00:00 EDT 2018},

  month        = {Fri Sep 07 00:00:00 EDT 2018}

}

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