Abstract
NiInGe ohmic contact materials, which are attractive to use in future GaAs devices, were previously developed in our laboratories. Although the NiInGe contacts provided low contact resistances of about 0.3 Ω-mm and excellent thermal stability, further reduction of the contact resistance (RC) of the NiInGe contacts was mandatory to use these contacts in submicron devices. In this paper, the microstructural parameters, which influence the RC values, were investigated by correlating the RC values with the microstructure at the interface between the contact materials and the GaAs substrate. The RC values of the NiInGe contacts were found to depend strongly on the volume fraction and the In concentration (x) of the InxGa1−xAs compound semiconductor layers, which were formed at the metal/GaAs interface. Both the volume fraction and the In concentration of the InxGa1−xAs layers were found to depend on the thickness of the In layer used in the NiInGe contact and the annealing temperature to form the ohmic contact. A RC value of 0.18 Ω-mm was obtained for the Ni (18 nm)/In (13 nm)/Ge (30 nm) contact (where a slash “/” indicates the deposition sequence) after annealing at temperature of 650°C for 5 sec.
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Tsunoda, Y., Murakami, M. Microstructural analysis of NiInGe ohmic contacts for n-type GaAs. J. Electron. Mater. 31, 76–81 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-002-0176-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-002-0176-6