Advanced process development for contacts to aluminum gallium nitride/gallium nitride high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs)

High work function metals---Ni, Pt, Ir, and Au---were comparatively studied as Schottky metallizations to GaN and AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. Ni/Au, Ni/Pt/Au, Ir/Au, Ir/Pt/Au and Pt/Au Schottky diodes were fabricated on GaN and AlGaN/GaN substrates. Schottky barrier heights ranging from 0.8 to 0.9 eV were obtained as-deposited on GaN with ideality factors of about 1.05. The quality of the Schottky diodes was evaluated and their thermal stability also was studied. The interposition of Pt in Ni/Au and Ir/Au systems was found to improve the characteristics of the Schottky diodes. Ir/Pt/Au diodes were found to be more thermally stable than Ni/Pt/Au diodes. Ni/Au Schottky contacts exhibited good leakage response under thermal annealing for long periods. Microstructural studies were carried out on Ni/Pt/Au and Ni/Au Schottky contacts to elucidate the role of the intermediate layer, Pt, in the degradation of the Ni/Pt/Au metallization under long-term thermal anneal.;A selective-area silicon ion implantation process for ohmic contact resistance improvement to AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) was developed. Non-alloyed ohmic contacts with very low contact resistances of 0.2--0.24 O-mm were achieved with TLM pads fabricated using the Mo/Al/Mo/Au metallization. Simulations were carried out with SRIM to qualify the implantation process. Surface chemistry analysis was undertaken on the implanted AlGaN/GaN and GaN samples to determine the impact of implantation on the surface morphology of the AlGaN layer.;The developed ion-implantation process was used to propose fabrication schemes for novel high speed self-aligned and non-self-aligned AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility trasistors (HEMTs) employing Ir/Pt/Au or Ni/Au gate and non-alloyed ohmic contact metallizations.