Ohmic contacts to Gallium Nitride materials.pdfVIP

Applied Surface Science 383 (2016) 324–345 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Surface Science journal homepage: /locate/apsusc Ohmic contacts to Gallium Nitride materials Giuseppe Greco a, Ferdinando Iucolano b, Fabrizio Roccaforte a,? a Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche—Istituto per la Microelettronica e Microsistemi (CNR-IMM), Strada VIII, n. 5 - Zona Industriale, 95121 Catania, Italy b STMicroelectronics, Stradale Primosole 50, 95121 Catania, Italy article info Article history: Received 22 January 2016 Received in revised form 2 April 2016 Accepted 4 April 2016 Available online 13 April 2016 PACS: 73.40.Cg 73.40.-c 73.40.Ns Keywords: n-GaN p-GaN AlGaN/GaN heterostructures Ohmic contacts abstract In this review article, a comprehensive study of the mechanisms of Ohmic contact formation on GaNbased materials is presented. After a brief introduction on the physics of Ohmic contacts, a resume of the most important results obtained in literature is reported for each of the systems taken in consideration (n-type GaN, p-type GaN and AlGaN/GaN heterostructures). The optimal metallization schemes and processing conditions to obtain low resistance Ohmic contacts are presented, discussing the role of the single metals composing the stack and the modi?cation induced by the thermal annealing, either on the metal layers or at the interface with GaN. Physical insights on the mechanism of Ohmic contact formation have been gained by correlating the temperature dependence of the electrical parameters with a morphological/structural analysis of the interface. In the case of the AlGaN/GaN systems, the in?uence of the heterostructure parameters on the Ohmic contacts has been taken into account adapting the classical thermionic ?eld emission model to the presence of the two dimensional electron gas (2DEG). Finally, the state of the art of “Au-free” metallization to AlGaN/GaN heterostructures is also presented, being this latter a relevant topic for the integration of G