利用快速热退火在n-GaAs上形成浅欧姆接触

采用超高真空电子束蒸发设备和快速热退火工艺制备GaAs／Pd／AuGe／Ag／An多层结构和测量比接触电阻车所需的传输线模型。研究了比接触电阻率与退火温度和时间关系，400～500℃之间退火的欧姆接触的比接触电阻车约为10（－6）Ωem2。接触层表面光滑、界面平整。利用俄歇电子谱（AES）、二次离子质谱（SIMS）、X射线衍射（XRD）和扫描电镜（SEM）研究了欧姆接触的微观结构和形成机理。     

Ge／Pd／n—GaAs低阻欧姆接触的SIMS分析

采用Ｇｅ／Ｐｄ／ＧａＡｓ结构和快速热退火在ｎ－ＧａＡｓ上形成了低阻欧姆接触，利用二次离子质谱技术揭示和讨论了低欧姆接触形成的机理。比较了采用Ｘ＾＋和ＧｓＸ＾＋信号检测的Ｇｅ，Ｐｄ，Ｇａ和Ａｓ的深度分布。结果表明采用ＣｓＸ＾＋可以提供更准确的结果和成分信息。     

金属夹层对Ge/GaAs(100)能带偏离影响的研究

用光电发射的方法研究了碱金属Na和碱土金属Mg对Ge／GaAs（100）异质结形成及能带偏离的影响。实验结果表明，Na和Mg的薄夹层可使Ge／GaAs（100）的价带偏离分别增加0．19和0．18eV。通过Na，Mg和Al夹层的对比研究，可认为金属夹层对异质结能带偏离的影响与金属的电负性及其与衬底的相互作用有关。     

A~ⅢB~Ⅴ化合物半导体欧姆接触的研究进展

本文全面、系统地评述了A~ⅢB~Ⅴ化合物半导体材料上欧姆接触的研究现状和发展方向。首先考虑金属／半导体接触物理，从理论上阐明了欧姆接触的机理，以及对其表征和测试。其次，文章用大量篇幅，总结了利用不同方法（如重掺技术、金属化和能带工程等）实现各种A~ⅢB~Ⅴ半导体材料上欧姆接触的工艺过程、实验研究和重要结论，其中以GaAs最为详细。结合器件的发展和实际工艺的要求，文章还分析了各种制备方法的优缺点，并指出这方面研究工作目前存在的、急需解决的一些问题。     

p型金刚石薄膜欧姆接触的研究

对p型金刚石薄膜上Ti／Au结构（金刚石-Ti／Au结构）的政姆接触和界面特性进行了研究。采用微波等离子体CVD方法在Si基片上制作出掺硼的金刚石薄膜，然后在金刚石薄膜表面上蒸发Ti／Au双层金属以形成接触电极。样品经700℃下氩气氛中热处理50min，可得到线性变化的I－U特性和比接触电阻率为2×10－4Ωcm2的欧姆接触。还采用X射线衍射图谱来分析金刚石薄膜与Ti／Au的界面，结果揭示了在金刚石-Ti／Au结构中形成欧姆接触的条件与规律。     

锗氮共掺碳化硅晶体杂质浓度表征及其电学性质研究

采用物理气相传输(PVT)法生长了2英寸(1英寸=25.4 mm)锗氮(Ge-N)共掺和单一Ge掺杂碳化硅晶体材料, 并制备成10 mm× 10 mm的SiC晶片。利用半导体工艺技术在不同衬底的碳面上制备钛(Ti)/铂(Pt)/金(Au)多层金属电极。使用二次离子质谱仪(SIMS)、霍尔测试仪(Hall)等测试手段对其表征。结果表明, Ge元素和N元素的共同掺杂可以有效提高SiC中Ge元素的掺杂浓度, Ge浓度可以达到1.19×10¹⁹ /cm³。所有晶片衬底均可以在不低于700℃的退火环境中形成欧姆接触, 且在700℃时退火形成最佳欧姆接触。高浓度Ge掺杂衬底接触电阻明显小于低浓度Ge掺杂衬底接触电阻, 这表明可以通过提高晶体中Ge元素浓度来提高器件性能。Hall测试结果表明, 随着Ge掺杂浓度的升高, 衬底迁移率会逐渐降低。这是由于Ge-N共掺后, SiC晶格匹配度提高, Ge元素的掺杂浓度变大, 增加了杂质散射对迁移率的影响。     

基于AlAs/InGaAs/GaAs共振隧穿效应的纳机电声传感器研制

本工作设计了一种基于AlAs/InGaAs/GaAs量子隧穿效应的纳机电拍子式声传感器,并采用ANSYS有限元分析软件对敏感元件的布置位置进行了最优化仿真设计.在加工工艺上,采用双空气桥技术和Au/Ge/Ni合金膜系欧姆接触技术有效降低了电容、电阻等对器件结构性能的影响;在传感器的具体加工过程中,共振隧穿结构(RTS)和拍子结构是通过控制孔技术一次流片完成的.对所加工的传感器进行了初步测试,结果表明,传感器频响能较好的与仿真结果相吻合,1.3KHz时同时具有较好的线性特性.     

Ni/Au、Pd/Au与p-AlGaN材料的接触特性

在AlGaNpin型日盲紫外探测器结构中的p-AlGaN层上生长了Ni/Au和Pd/Au,并在600～850℃温度下进行快速热退火,测量其退火前后传输线模型中各金属接触间的电学性质。实验发现,Ni/Au与Pd/Au在p-AlGaN上表现出了不同的接触性能。为了更好的说明金属与p-AlGaN材料接触之间在退火后电流的变化,还测量了p-AlGaN材料裸片两点之间I-V曲线在退火前后的变化。实验表明,比起Ni/Au来,Pd/Au在p-AlGaN材料上制备欧姆接触具有一定的优势,并在文中进行了分析。     

M/HgI2接触特性分析

利用不同的电极材料和制备方法制备了3种M/HgI2。采用热电子发射模型计算了相应的接触势垒。采用比接触电阻法、电极系数法和欧姆系数法对比了M/HgI2的欧姆接触特性。结果表明,C/HgI2、AuCl3/HgI2和Au/HgI2的接触势垒均约为0.9eV;C/HgI2和AuCl3/HgI2具有良好的欧姆特性,Au/HgI2的欧姆特性相对较差。分析认为,HgI2晶体表面费米能级的钉扎导致了相近的接触势垒。但由于电极制备工艺没有显著影响AuCl3/HgI2和C/HgI2晶体表面质量,因而具有良好的欧姆接触特性。由于溅射Au电极在制备工艺中的温度升高和真空度造成Au/HgI2晶体表面质量下降,因此其欧姆接触特性较差。     

ZnO上欧姆接触的研究进展

为制备高性能的ZnO基器件如UV光发射器，探测器、场效应晶体管，在ZnO上形成优良的金属电极是十分必要的。回顾了近年来ZnO上制备欧姆接触的新进展，对在n型ZnO上制备欧姆接触的Al，A1/Pt，A1/Au，Ti/Al，Ti，AU，Ti/A1/Pt/Au，Re/Ti/Au等金属化方案的性能与特点，以及影响欧姆接触电阻率和热稳定性的因素，如表面处理和退火等进行了分析与归纳。同时，对P型ZnO上难以获得低接触电阻的原因进行了讨论。文章还简要说明了ZnO上透明欧姆接触的研究现状，指出获得低阻、高导电、高透光和高热稳定性的接触是未来ZnO基光电器件的发展方向。     

Improvement of Ge/Pd/GaAs ohmic contact by In layer

The presented work describes behaviour of contact structures of the Ge/Pd type with the In layer deposited on the surface of the GaAs substrate plate prior to the metallization. The most suitable structure by contact resistivity and thermal stability is Ge(40 nm)/Pd(20 nm)/In(22 nm). This structure shows minimal contact resistivity 2 × 10⁻⁶ Ωcm². Raman spectroscopy and XPS spectroscopy was used for the contact structure analysis. After thermal annealing, the metallization contains GePd phase and a thin germanium layer remains at the surface. Very slight reaction of indium with the substrate (creation of a ternary phase InGaAs) has been proved. Germanium and palladium diffuse into the GaAs substrate, the surface layer of GaAs is doped by Ge and Pd is built in the GaAs crystal structure instead of arsenic.     

RETRACTED ARTICLE: The influence of surface cleaning on the stability of Pd/GaAs contacts

The thermal stability of –GaAs ohmic contacts with Ge and Sn layers was investigated at 300 and 400 °C. The majority of contact structures are possible to anneal according to the annealing optimization at one temperature, but the dependence of the contact resistivity on the annealing temperature show two minima in the case of the Ge(20 nm)/Pd(10 nm) structure. The thermal stability of the structure is better after the annealing at temperatures from the higher temperature minimum. Etching of GaAs wafers before the metal deposition in the solution of (1 : 8 : 500) followed by (1 : 1) or in concentrate HCl produces the best thermal stability. The Ge/Pd contact structures are based on the solid phase regrowth mechanisms but the annealing mechanism is completely different for the Sn/Pd contact structures.     

Microstructural analysis of Pd/Pt/Au/Pd ohmic contacts to InGaP/GaAs

Microstructural evolution during the annealing of Pd/Pt/Au/Pd p-ohmic contacts (with and without a thin layer of Zn) to InGaP/GaAs HBTs has been studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Metal layers were deposited by electron beam evaporation directly onto the InGaP emitter layer with the intention of consuming the InGaP during annealing to contact the heavily C-doped p-type GaAs (3×10¹⁹ cm⁻³) base layer below. Initial reaction between Pd and Pt and InGaP formed a five-component amorphous layer (Pd, Pt, In, Ga and P), which crystallized to (Pt_xPd_1−x)5(In_yGa_1−y)P (0≤x, y≤1) at the interface between Pt and the amorphous layer. Annealing at temperatures ≥415°C caused complete decomposition of the InGaP and partial decomposition of the GaAs base layer, producing a contact consisting of (Pt_xPd_1−x)5(In_yGa_1−y)P, PtAs₂ and PdGa. The attainment of low contact resistances did not depend on the presence of Zn. Minimum values of 0.10−0.12 Ω mm were achieved after annealing at 415–440°C for contacts both with and without Zn. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Low-temperature annealed ohmic contacts to Si-doped GaAs and contact formation mechanisms

Using nonferromagnetic contact materials, Au(x nm)/Ge(y nm)/Pd(z nm) structures (where x, y, and z are the thicknesses of Au, Ge and Pd layers, respectively) are fabricated on Si-doped GaAs and studied as a function of x, y and z and n-type substrate doping density and annealing temperature to characterise them as ohmic contacts. The study shows that the structure with x = 100, y = 40 and z = 10, annealed at 180 °C for 1 h, contacts n-type GaAs more reliably with the low contact resistance. Using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, contact formation mechanisms are also studied.     

Thermally stable Pd/Sn and Pd/Sn/Au ohmic contacts to n-type GaAs

Thermal stability of novel Pd/Sn and Pd/Sn/Au Ohmic contacts to n-GaAs has been investigated and compared to the non-alloyed Pd/Ge and alloyed Au–Ge/Ni metallizations. Metallization samples are furnace annealed at various temperatures and systematically characterized utilizing Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and current–voltage (I–V) measurements. Contact resistivities, ρ_c, of the proposed metallization are measured using a conventional Transmission Line Model (cTLM) method. The Pd/Sn Ohmic contacts display superior thermal stability at 410°C when compared to the Pd/Ge contacts. After annealing at 410°C for 4 h, ρ_c of the Pd(50 nm)/Sn(125 nm) metallization remains in the low 10⁻⁵ Ω cm² range, whereas ρ_c values increase to 10⁻⁴ Ω cm² for the Pd(50 nm)/Ge(126 nm) contacts. At 410°C, the Pd/Sn/Au metallizations also display better thermal stability than that of non-alloyed Pd/Ge and alloyed Au–Ge/Ni metallizations. The long-term stability at 300°C of the Pd/Sn and Pd/Sn/Au Ohmic contacts is also reported.     

Development of refractory ohmic contact materials for gallium arsenide compound semiconductors

Recent strong demands for optoelectronic communication and portable telephones have encouraged engineers to develop optoelectronic devices, microwave devices, and high-speed devices using hetero-structural GaAs-based compound semiconductors. Although the GaAs crystal growth techniques had reached a level to control the compositional stoichiometry and crystal defects on a nearly atomic scale by the advanced techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy and metal organic chemical vapor deposition techniques, development of ohmic contact materials (which play a key role to inject external electric current from the metals to the semiconductors) was still on a trial-and-error basis.Our research efforts have been focused to develop low resistance, refractory ohmic contact materials to n-type GaAs using the deposition and annealing techniques, and it was found the growth of homo-or hetero-epitaxial intermediate semiconductor layers (ISL) on the GaAs surface was essential for the low resistance ohmic contact formation. In this paper, two typical examples of ohmic contact materials developed by forming ISL were given. The one was refractory NiGe-based ohmic contact material, which was developed by forming the homo-epitaxial ISL doped heavily with donors. This heavily doped ISL was discovered to be formed through the regrowth mechanism of GaAs layers at the NiGe/GaAs interfaces during annealing at elevated temperatures. To reduce the contact resistance further down to a value required by the device designers, an addition of small amounts of third elements to NiGe, which have strong binding energy with Ga, was found to be essential. These third elements contributed to increase the carrier concentration in ISL. The low resistance ohmic contact materials developed by forming homo-epitaxial ISL were Ni/M/Ge where a slash ‘/’ denotes the deposition sequence and M is an extremely thin (∼5 nm) layer of Au, Ag, Pd, Pt or In. The other was refractory In_xGa_1−xAs-based ohmic contact materials which were developed by forming the hetero-epitaxial ISL with low Schottky barrier to the contacting metals by growing the In_xGa_1−xAs layers on the GaAs substrate by sputter-depositing In_xGa_1−xAs targets and subsequently annealing at elevated temperatures. To reduce the contact resistance, it was found that this In_xGa_1−xAs (ISL) layer had to have In compositional gradient normal to the GaAs surface: the In concentration being rich at the metal/In_xGa_1−xAs interface and poor close to the In_xGa_1−xAs/GaAs interface. This concentration graded ISL reduced both the barrier heights at the metal/ISL and ISL/GaAs interfaces and reduced the contact resistance. The ohmic contact materials developed by forming hetero-epitaxial ISL was In_0.7Ga_0.3As/Ni/WN₂/W. These contact materials formed refractory compounds at the interfaces, which was also found to be essential to improve thermal stability of ohmic contacts used in the GaAs devices.     

Highly Sensitive Humidity Sensor Using Pd/Porous GaAs Schottky Contact

This paper investigates the suitability of porous GaAs as a semiconductor material for sensing humidity. The authors have developed two types of sensors based on Pd/porous GaAs and Pd/GaAs Schottky contacts for humidity measurements. It was found that the porosity on GaAs wafer promoted the sensing properties of the contact used as highly sensitive humidity sensor toward different amounts of relative humidity operated at room temperature. On the contrary, the Pd/GaAs sample operated at room temperature exhibited negligible sensitivity to relative humidity. The advantages of using porous GaAs for Schottky humidity sensor are the following: high sensitivity, low response time, and insignificant dependence on temperature. Current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the Pd/porous GaAs Schottky humidity sensor exhibited a saturation current value of 8.5times10^-10 A under dry condition (5% relative humidity). This was increased to 7.0times10^-9 A when submitted to a relative humidity of 25%. The saturation current was further increased considerably to 3.0times10^-7 A as the relative humidity was increased to 95%. This is more than two orders of magnitude increase in saturation current compared to dry condition. A parameter called humidity sensitivity was defined using the current value at a fixed forward voltage of 0.2 V to present the sensitivity of the sensor. Response times are reported to discuss the adsorption and desorption characteristics of the device. Pd/porous GaAs sensor operated at room temperature showed a fast response time of 2 s and a sensitivity value of 93.5% in the presence of 25% relative humidity. Furthermore, the influence of increase in relative humidity as well as heating effects on the responsivity of the sensor is described. Scanning electron microscopy analysis of the Pd/porous GaAs sample exhibited highly porous structures     

Performance of Pd–Ge based ohmic contacts to n-type GaAs

The performance of Pd–Ge based ohmic contacts, with and without Ti–Pt or Ti–Pt–Au capping layers, has been investigated. The contacts were deposited by electron beam evaporation, then characterized electrically using a modified transmission line method (TLM) and structurally using both cross-section and plan-view transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Although both capped and non-capped contact structures underwent the same phase transformations during annealing, capped contacts had significantly better contact resistances (a minimum value of 4×10-7 Ω cm² was achieved) – almost three orders of magnitude better. The superior performance is attributed to the capping layers providing protection for the Pd–Ge layers during contact processing, where the metallization was exposed to a CF₄–O₂ plasma, oxyen descumming, organic solvents and deionized water. Non-capped contacts exhibited PdGe decomposition and oxidation of exposed Ge. Long-term reliability testing of capped contacts showed virtually no change in contact resistance at 235°C (1350 h) and a sevenfold increase after ageing at 290°C for 370 h. There were no phase changes during ageing; the increase in contact resistance was attributed to interdiffusion between Ge and GaAs. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Electrical Resistance of W/Si–Ge (0–75 wt % Ge) Contacts

The electrical resistance of the contact between tungsten and silicon–germanium alloys of different compositions was measured as a function of temperature. The results indicate that the room-temperature contact resistance increases with increasing Ge content, annealing temperature, and annealing time. With increasing measuring temperature, the contact resistance drops to a level of the experimental error. Annealing at 1070 K tends to break down both W/p-Si–Ge and W/n-Si–Ge contacts.     

Formation of strain-free GaAs-on-Si structures by annealing under ultrahigh pressure

Theoretical and experimental discussions on a novel method to solve the thermal mismatch problem in heteroepitaxial growth have been reviewed. It has been predicted theoretically for structures such as Ge/Si and GaAs/Si that the difference in thermal expansion coefficients can be compensated for by the elastic strain generated by hydrostatic pressure. This theoretical prediction has been verified experimentally using GaAs-on-Si structures, in which the structures are formed by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and subsequently annealed under ultrahigh pressure. It has been found that for annealing at pressures up to 2.1 GPa, the strain in GaAs films decreases linearly with increasing pressure and becomes zero at a pressure of around 1.9 GPa. It has also been found that the strain depends weakly on the annealing temperature, which ranged from 300 to 500 °C. Concerning the crystalline quality of the annealed GaAs films, a slight increase in the minimum channeling yield in Rutherford backscattering spectrometry has been observed in the samples with broad-area GaAs films. It has been found, however, that degradation in the crystalline quality can be avoided by etching the GaAs films in a pattern of stripes 10 μm wide.