The impact of interfacial Si contamination on GaN-on-GaN regrowth for high power vertical devices

Kai Fu; Houqiang Fu; Xuguang Deng; Po Yi Su; Hanxiao Liu; Kevin Hatch; Chi Yin Cheng; Daniel Messina; Reza Vatan Meidanshahi; Prudhvi Peri; Chen Yang; Tsung Han Yang; Jossue Montes; Jingan Zhou; Xin Qi; Stephen M. Goodnick; Fernando A. Ponce; David J. Smith; Robert Nemanich; Yuji Zhao

doi:10.1063/5.0049473

The impact of interfacial Si contamination on GaN-on-GaN regrowth for high power vertical devices

Kai Fu, Houqiang Fu, Xuguang Deng, Po Yi Su, Hanxiao Liu, Kevin Hatch, Chi Yin Cheng, Daniel Messina, Reza Vatan Meidanshahi, Prudhvi Peri, Chen Yang, Tsung Han Yang, Jossue Montes, Jingan Zhou, Xin Qi, Stephen M. Goodnick, Fernando A. Ponce, David J. Smith, Robert Nemanich, Yuji Zhao

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Abstract

The development of gallium nitride (GaN) power devices requires a reliable selective-area doping process, which is difficult to achieve because of ongoing challenges associated with the required etch-then-regrow process. The presence of silicon (Si) impurities of unclear physical origin at the GaN regrowth interface has proven to be a major bottleneck. This paper investigates the origin of Si contamination at the epitaxial GaN-on-GaN interface and demonstrates an approach that markedly reduces its impact on device performance. An optimized dry-etching approach combined with UV-ozone and chemical etching is shown to greatly reduce the Si concentration levels at the regrowth interface, and a significant improvement in a reverse leakage current in vertical GaN-based p-n diodes is achieved.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	222104
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	118
Issue number	22
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0049473
State	Published - May 31 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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Fu, K., Fu, H., Deng, X., Su, P. Y., Liu, H., Hatch, K., Cheng, C. Y., Messina, D., Meidanshahi, R. V., Peri, P., Yang, C., Yang, T. H., Montes, J., Zhou, J., Qi, X., Goodnick, S. M., Ponce, F. A., Smith, D. J., Nemanich, R., & Zhao, Y. (2021). The impact of interfacial Si contamination on GaN-on-GaN regrowth for high power vertical devices. Applied Physics Letters, 118(22), Article 222104. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0049473

Fu, K, Fu, H, Deng, X, Su, PY, Liu, H, Hatch, K, Cheng, CY, Messina, D, Meidanshahi, RV, Peri, P, Yang, C, Yang, TH, Montes, J, Zhou, J, Qi, X, Goodnick, SM , Ponce, FA , Smith, DJ , Nemanich, R & Zhao, Y 2021, 'The impact of interfacial Si contamination on GaN-on-GaN regrowth for high power vertical devices', Applied Physics Letters, vol. 118, no. 22, 222104. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0049473

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title = "The impact of interfacial Si contamination on GaN-on-GaN regrowth for high power vertical devices",

abstract = "The development of gallium nitride (GaN) power devices requires a reliable selective-area doping process, which is difficult to achieve because of ongoing challenges associated with the required etch-then-regrow process. The presence of silicon (Si) impurities of unclear physical origin at the GaN regrowth interface has proven to be a major bottleneck. This paper investigates the origin of Si contamination at the epitaxial GaN-on-GaN interface and demonstrates an approach that markedly reduces its impact on device performance. An optimized dry-etching approach combined with UV-ozone and chemical etching is shown to greatly reduce the Si concentration levels at the regrowth interface, and a significant improvement in a reverse leakage current in vertical GaN-based p-n diodes is achieved.",

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note = "Funding Information: This work was supported in part by ARPA-E PNDIODES Program under Grant No. DE-AR0000868, in part by the NASA HOTTech Program under Grant No. 80NSSC17K0768, in part by the ASU Nanofab through NSF under Contract No. ECCS-1542160, and in part by ULTRA, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, BaEsic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0021230. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Author(s).",

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AU - Fu, Kai

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AU - Liu, Hanxiao

AU - Hatch, Kevin

AU - Cheng, Chi Yin

AU - Messina, Daniel

AU - Meidanshahi, Reza Vatan

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AU - Montes, Jossue

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AU - Qi, Xin

AU - Goodnick, Stephen M.

AU - Ponce, Fernando A.

AU - Smith, David J.

AU - Nemanich, Robert

AU - Zhao, Yuji

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported in part by ARPA-E PNDIODES Program under Grant No. DE-AR0000868, in part by the NASA HOTTech Program under Grant No. 80NSSC17K0768, in part by the ASU Nanofab through NSF under Contract No. ECCS-1542160, and in part by ULTRA, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, BaEsic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0021230. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Author(s).

PY - 2021/5/31

Y1 - 2021/5/31

N2 - The development of gallium nitride (GaN) power devices requires a reliable selective-area doping process, which is difficult to achieve because of ongoing challenges associated with the required etch-then-regrow process. The presence of silicon (Si) impurities of unclear physical origin at the GaN regrowth interface has proven to be a major bottleneck. This paper investigates the origin of Si contamination at the epitaxial GaN-on-GaN interface and demonstrates an approach that markedly reduces its impact on device performance. An optimized dry-etching approach combined with UV-ozone and chemical etching is shown to greatly reduce the Si concentration levels at the regrowth interface, and a significant improvement in a reverse leakage current in vertical GaN-based p-n diodes is achieved.

AB - The development of gallium nitride (GaN) power devices requires a reliable selective-area doping process, which is difficult to achieve because of ongoing challenges associated with the required etch-then-regrow process. The presence of silicon (Si) impurities of unclear physical origin at the GaN regrowth interface has proven to be a major bottleneck. This paper investigates the origin of Si contamination at the epitaxial GaN-on-GaN interface and demonstrates an approach that markedly reduces its impact on device performance. An optimized dry-etching approach combined with UV-ozone and chemical etching is shown to greatly reduce the Si concentration levels at the regrowth interface, and a significant improvement in a reverse leakage current in vertical GaN-based p-n diodes is achieved.

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The impact of interfacial Si contamination on GaN-on-GaN regrowth for high power vertical devices

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