KR100877871B1 - Structure of electrode for GaN-based semiconductor - Google Patents

Abstract

The electrode structure of the gallium nitride compound semiconductor according to the embodiment is formed on the contact layer formed on the upper side of the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor, and formed on the upper surface of the contact layer, Metal-Si (silicon), Metal-N (nitrogen), An intermediate diffusion barrier layer comprising a single metal layer of Ru (ruthenium), or a multiple metal layer formed of a combination of two or more layers, and an electrode layer formed on an upper surface of the intermediate diffusion barrier layer. In addition, the electrode structure of the gallium nitride compound semiconductor according to the embodiment is a contact layer formed on the upper side of the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor, and formed on the upper surface of the contact layer, W (tungsten), Mo (molybdenum) or the W And an intermediate diffusion barrier layer comprising a single metal layer of a composite material of Mo, or a multimetal layer formed of a combination of two or more layers, and an electrode layer formed on an upper surface of the intermediate diffusion barrier layer.

The electrode of the present invention further forms an intermediate diffusion barrier layer between the contact layer and the electrode layer of the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor, thereby suppressing the unsuitable interfacial reaction occurring at the interface between the metal and the semiconductor, thereby preventing thermal and electrical There is an effect that can improve the overall characteristics, and improve the ohmic characteristics of the electrode.

Gallium Nitride, Semiconductor, Ohmic Electrode

Description

Structure of electrode for GaN-based semiconductor

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The figure explaining the laminated structure of the conventional gallium nitride compound semiconductor.

2 is a view for explaining a laminated structure of a gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor according to the present invention.

Figure 3 is a diagram showing the measurement of the specific contact resistance according to the progress of the heat treatment time by the C-TLM method of the present invention and the comparative example.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

1, 11: gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor

2, 12: contact layer

3, 14 electrode layer

13: intermediate diffusion barrier layer

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the construction of electrodes of gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductors. In particular, gallium nitride (GaN), in which an intermediate diffusion barrier is further formed between a semiconductor contact layer and an electrode layer, provides a thermally and electrically stable ohmic electrode. The electrode structure of a compound semiconductor is related.

A gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor is a light emitting diode (LED) capable of realizing blue light, and its use is increasing rapidly in recent years. In order to realize more high-brightness light and stable light, many researches have been conducted on the configuration of the electrode.

1 is a diagram illustrating a laminated structure of a conventional gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor.

Referring to FIG. 1, a gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor (GaN) layer 1, a contact layer 2 formed on an upper surface of the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor layer, and the contact layer 2 The electrode layer 3 is further formed on the upper surface. Furthermore, the contact layer 2 is made of gold (Au) as the main component, and the electrode layer 3 is made of nickel (Ni) as the main component.

In addition, in the conventional gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor, after the multilayer structure is laminated, heat treatment is generally performed to find an appropriate ohmic condition of the electrode. However, in this heat treatment step, deterioration of the electrode occurs due to mutual diffusion between unwanted components at the interface between the metal used as the electrode and the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor. In addition, such degeneration of the electrode acts as a cause of increasing the leakage current during the operation of the device for a long time has a large impact on the reliability of the semiconductor device.

Such a reaction of the metal-semiconductor interface will be described again with reference to the reaction mechanism. During the heat treatment, high heat is applied to the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor and the metal, and the heat causes a constant reaction to each other. In particular, this reaction occurs in the direction of reducing the interfacial energy, at which time the energy has a negative activation energy. This negative energy is also due to the difference in the different ionization energies of the metal and the semiconductor.

As a result, by reducing the difference in ionization energy between the two to absorb the negative energy, it is possible to form the electrode structure of the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor that is stable at the interface between the metal and the semiconductor.

The present invention proposes an electrode structure of a gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor capable of suppressing an interfacial reaction between a gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor and a metal layer in contact with the semiconductor and suppressing mutual reaction between metal layers used as electrodes. For the purpose of

In particular, an object of the present invention is to propose a configuration of an ohmic electrode in which a gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor can be thermally and electrically operated stably.

The electrode structure of the gallium nitride compound semiconductor according to the embodiment of the present invention is formed on the contact layer formed on the upper side of the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor, and formed on the upper surface of the contact layer, the metal-Si (silicon), Metal-N ( An intermediate diffusion barrier layer comprising a single metal layer of nitrogen), Ru (ruthenium), or a combination of two or more layers, and an electrode layer formed on an upper surface of the intermediate diffusion barrier layer.

The electrode structure of the gallium nitride compound semiconductor according to the embodiment of the present invention is formed on the contact layer formed on the upper side of the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor, and formed on the upper surface of the contact layer, W (tungsten), Mo (molybdenum) or the An intermediate diffusion barrier layer comprising a single metal layer of a composite material of W and Mo, or a multiple metal layer formed of a combination of two or more layers, and an electrode layer formed on an upper surface of the intermediate diffusion barrier layer.

As described above, the interaction between the metal layers and the unwanted interaction between the metal layer and the semiconductor layer can be suppressed, and thus, a stable ohmic electrode of a gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor can be realized.

The present invention proposes an intermediate diffusion barrier capable of selectively adjusting the interfacial reaction between a gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor layer and a metal layer in contact with the gallium nitride based semiconductor layer. Specifically, the reaction between the metal-Ga and the metal-N occurs at the interface between the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor layer and the metal layer, which provides an intermediate diffusion barrier that may contribute to the selective adjustment of the reaction.

For example, in the case of the p-type electrode, the reaction of Metal-Ga should occur stably and the reaction of Metal-N should be suppressed. It is to form an intermediate diffusion barrier having a positive activation energy of the intermediate stage of the activation energy of.

On the other hand, there should be little reaction between the intermediate diffusion barrier and the upper electrode metal layer, so that the negative activation energy formed at the interface between the metal layer and the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor layer to be sufficiently emitted to the electrode layer.

Hereinafter, the ohmic electrode structure of the present invention will be described in detail with an example of a p-type electrode.

2 is a view for explaining a laminated structure of a gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, a gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor layer 11, a contact layer 12, and an electrode layer 14 are included. In particular, an interfacial surface between the contact layer 12 and the electrode layer 14 is included. It can be seen that the intermediate diffusion barrier layer 13 is further formed on the substrate. The intermediate diffusion barrier layer 13 may suppress the interfacial reaction between the metal layer and the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor layer during heat treatment, and may also be negatively activated at the interface between the metal layer and the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor layer. Certain materials capable of dissipating energy to the upper electrode layer are used in single or multiple stacks.

For example, when the contact layer 12 is gold (Au) and the electrode layer 14 is nickel (Ni), the intermediate diffusion barrier layer 13 is abbreviated as Si (silicon) alloy ("Metal-Si"). ), N (nitrogen) alloy (which may be abbreviated as "Metal-N"), Ru (ruthenium), or any one of the Si alloy layer, N alloy layer, Ru layer It may comprise a multimetal layer formed by combining two or more layers.

In addition, the intermediate diffusion barrier layer 13 may include a single metal layer of W (tungsten), Mo (molybdenum) or the composite material of the W and Mo, or may include a multimetal layer formed by combining these materials.

On the other hand, when the intermediate diffusion barrier layer 13 forms a multi-metal layer, the thickness of each layer may be formed of 1 ~ 5,000nm.

Hereinafter, specific examples and comparative examples of the present invention will be described.

The gallium nitride (GaN) compound is washed with trichloroethylene (TCE), acetone, methanol and distilled water for 5 minutes each. C-TLM (Circular-Transmission Line model) pattern is formed by photolithography. The pattern is then mounted in a metal vapor deposition chamber.

The metal evaporator may be an evaporator, a sputter, an ion beam cluster evaporator, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD), a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), an evaporator using a magnet, or an evaporator using a laser.

After the pattern is placed on the evaporator, as a comparative example, 10 nm of gold and nickel are deposited on the upper side of the gallium nitride (GaN) compound at 10 ⁻⁶ Torr.

As an embodiment of the present invention, gold is deposited as the contact layer 12 and nickel as the electrode layer 14 on the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor layer 11, respectively.

The intermediate diffusion barrier layer 13 is formed of a single metal layer by depositing any one of Metal-Si (silicon), Metal-N (nitrogen), Cr (chromium), and Ru (rucenium), or a combination of the above materials. By vapor deposition above, it forms in a multimetal layer.

In addition, as another embodiment of the intermediate diffusion barrier layer 13, any one of W (tungsten), Mo (molybdenum) or the composite material of the W and Mo is deposited to form a single metal layer, or by combining the materials By depositing more than two layers, it can form as a multimetal layer.

At this time, each layer constituting the intermediate diffusion barrier layer 13 may be deposited by 10nm.

After the intermediate diffusion barrier layer 13 is deposited, heat treatment is performed to achieve ohmic contact of the gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor.

On the other hand, by the C-TLM method measured the specific contact resistance with the passage of the heat treatment time is shown as a diagram in FIG. At this time, the temperature to perform the heat treatment is an environment of 600 ℃ as a temperature for achieving ohmic contact.

Referring to FIG. 3, when the intermediate diffusion barrier layer (see 13 in FIG. 2) is not formed, thermally unstable characteristics such as the non-contact resistance value tend to increase as the heat treatment time passes (see FIG. 32). . However, when the intermediate diffusion barrier layer 13 as in the present invention is further formed, it can be seen that the thermal stability is very excellent, such as the specific contact resistance value according to the heat treatment time is constantly measured (see FIG. 31).

Further, in the above Examples and Comparative Examples, the heat treatment was continuously performed at a temperature of 600 ° C. for 60 minutes to observe the change on the surface of the electrode using AFM (Atomic Force Microscope). This roughness affects a later process, but in the case of the present invention, it can be observed that the surface is formed very smoothly and has a very good smooth surface. The above-described good surface characteristics can improve the production yield of the semiconductor device.

As described above, by providing an intermediate diffusion barrier layer between the contact layer of the semiconductor and the electrode layer, excellent thermal and electrical stability of the semiconductor can be realized.

By the electrode of the present invention, an intermediate diffusion barrier is further formed between the contact layer and the electrode layer of the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor, thereby suppressing the unsuitable interfacial reaction occurring at the interface between the metal and the semiconductor, thereby providing thermal and electrical There is an effect that can improve the characteristics, and improve the ohmic characteristics of the electrode.

Claims (2)

A contact layer formed on the upper side of the gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor, It is formed on the contact layer and includes a single metal layer made of a material of Si (silicon) alloy or N (nitrogen) alloy, or a multimetal layer formed by combining at least two layers of Si alloy layer, N alloy layer and Ru layer. Intermediate diffusion barrier layer, An electrode structure of a gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductor comprising an electrode layer formed on the upper surface of the intermediate diffusion barrier layer. delete

Images