Abstract
We report on the temperature-dependent contact resistivity and high-temperature stability of the annealed Ni/Au ohmic contacts to p-type GaN in air. As the measure temperature increases from 25°C to 390°C, both the specific contact resistivity (ρ c) and sheet resistance (R sh) decrease by factors ∼10, contributing to the 10-fold increase in current at 390°C compared with that at 25°C. It was also observed that the ρ c was further reduced by 36%, i.e., from 2.2 × 10−3 Ω cm2 to 1.4 × 10−3 Ω cm2, during the 48-h high-temperature stability test at 450°C in air, showing excellent stability of the contacts. An increase in ρ c was observed after the contacts were subjected to 500°C in air. Higher temperature stress led to a significant increase in ρ c. The contacts show rectifying I–V characteristics after being subjected to 700°C for 1 h. The degradation mechanics were analyzed with the assistance of transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy.
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Acknowledgements
The work presented herein was funded in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Energy, under award number DE-AR0000470.
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Zhao, S., McFavilen, H., Wang, S. et al. Temperature Dependence and High-Temperature Stability of the Annealed Ni/Au Ohmic Contact to p-Type GaN in Air. J. Electron. Mater. 45, 2087–2091 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-015-4278-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-015-4278-3