THE METHOD FOR AIInGaN EPITAXIAL GROWTH ON SILICON SUBSTRATE
[Technical Field] The present invention relates to a method of growing an
AllnGaN-based thin film on a silicon substrate and, more particularly, to a method of growing a strain-alleviated AllnGaN-based thin film with high quality using a silicon substrate having a porous silicon layer.
[Background Art] In general, a sapphire substrate or a SiC substrate is used for growing an AllnGaN-based thin film thereon. Although techniques of growing the AllnGaN-based thin film on the sapphire substrate or SiC substrate reach maturity, there is a difficulty in mass production of AllnGaN-based thin film because the sapphire substrate and SiC substrate are expensive and difficult to be processed. In the case of silicon substrate, however, even a tens-inch silicon wafer with high quality can be fabricated and its cost is remarkably cheaper than the sapphire substrate or SiC substrate. Owing to these advantages, studies on the growth of AllnGaN-based thin film on the silicon substrate have been carried out. The silicon substrate is in a favorable condition for mass production of AllnGaN-based thin film because its manufacturing technique has been completely developed.
However, there is a technical problem in the growth of AllnGaN-based thin film on the silicon substrate because of considerably severe lattice mismatch between the silicon substrate and AllnGaN-based thin film and structural difference between crystals of the silicon substrate and AllnGaN-based thin film. Accordingly, when AllnGaN-based thin film is grown on the silicon substrate, the grown AllnGaN-based thin film is cracked or a large amount of crystal defects are generated in the thin film. To overcome this, a technique of interposing an AIGaN layer between the silicon substrate and AllnGaN-based thin film to improve the quality of the AllnGaN-based thin film has b een studied. However, there still remain many p roblems in overcoming lattice mismatch of approximately 17%.
[Disclosure] [Technical Problem] Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems and it is an object of the present invention is to propose a method of growing an AllnGaN-based thin film on a silicon substrate having a porous silicon layer thereon such that the porous silicon layer absorbs strain caused by lattice mismatch between the AllnGaN-based thin film and the silicon substrate, to thereby obtain a high-quality AllnGaN-based thin film. [Technical Solution] The porous s ilicon I ayer i s formed o n t he s ilicon s ubstrate, g enerally using anodizing the silicon substrate in hydrogen fluoride (HF) solution to form
a porous silicon substrate (Referring to FIG. 1), which is a mature technology in a typical Silicon processing technology. The porous silicon substrate formed in this manner has plenty of deep pores with a size of several angstroms to several hundred angstroms. Due to these pores, the porous silicon substrate has a property like that of sponge and thus it has a structure capable of absorbing external strain. When the AllnGaN-based thin film is grown on the porous silicon substrate, strain caused by lattice mismatch between the silicon substrate and
AllnGaN-based thin film is absorbed by the porous silicon and thus crack-free AllnGaN-based thin film with high quality can be formed on the silicon substrate. The AllnGaN-based thin film grown on the porous silicon substrate is continuously grown to be bonded to the porous silicon layer such that a flattened AllnGaN-based thin film is formed as shown in FIG. 2. Here, the growth temperature of AllnGaN-based thin film can be 300°C
to 1300°C. Introducing a conventional low-temperature buffer concept, a low-temperature b uffer I ayer i s formed o n t he p orous silicon s ubstrate b y 1 0 anstroms to 1000 angstroms at a temperature of 300°C to 1000°C and then AllnGaN-based thin film is formed thereon, but the AllnGaN-based thin film can be directly formed on the porous silicon substrate without the low-temperature buffer layer. The AllnGaN-based thin film grown in this manner can be used for light-emitting devices including LED and LD and electronic devices.
The porous silicon layer formed on the silicon substrate is weaker than the silicon substrate in structure because of plenty of pores. Furthermore, the porous silicon layer absorbs chemicals very well when etched. Accordingly, the AllnGaN-based thin film formed on the porous silicon layer can be easily separated from the silicon substrate b y c hemically etching the porous silicon layer or applying a mechanical force to the porous silicon layer. This thin film separating technique is a very important technique for improving external quantum efficiency of a light-emitting device such as LED. It is very difficult to separate the AllnGaN-based thin film formed on the conventional sapphire substrate or SiC substrate from the substrate and this difficulty acts as an obstacle to improve the external quantum efficiency. However, the AllnGaN-based thin film formed on the porous silicon substrate can be easily separated so that external quantum efficiency of LED can be maximized. [Advantageous Effects] The method of growing an AlχlnyGaι-x-yN thin film on the silicon substrate having the porous silicon layer according to the present invention has the following advantages. (1) The porous silicon layer absorbs strain caused by lattice mismatch between the silicon substrate and the AlxlnyGaι-χ-yN thin film and thus AlxlnyGai-x-yN thin film having considerably reduced crack or lattice defect can be formed on the silicon substrate. (2) The AlxlnyGai-x-yN thin film can be easily separated from the silicon substrate by chemically etching the porous silicon layer or applying a
mechanical force to the porous silicon layer. (3) The silicon substrate is much cheaper than the conventional sapphire substrate or SiC substrate. Also, high techniques of manufacturing the silicon substrate can fabricate a large-size silicon substrate with high quality, thus, mass production of the AlxlnyGaι.x-yN thin film is facilitated.
[Description of Drawings] Further objects and advantages of the invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIGs. 1 and 2 show a method of growing AllnGaN-based thin film on a silicon layer having a porous silicon layer according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the present invention.
[Mode for Invention] A method of growing an AllnGaN-based thin film on a silicon substrate having a porous silicon layer according to the present invention will now be explained in detail with reference to the attached drawings. Embodiment 1 As shown in FIG. 1 , a porous silicon layer 11 having pores 12 in a
predetermined thickness is formed on the surface of the silicon substrate 10 by using a typical pore-making method such as anodizing. Here, the silicon substrate can be any o ne of (100), (111) and (110) silicon wafers. Preferably, (100) or (111) wafer is used as the silicon substrate 10. In addition, an N-doped or P-doped silicon wafer having doping concentration of 1x1015 to 1x1020 is used as the silicon substrate. It is preferable that the porous silicon layer has a thickness of 0.01 to 100μm. Referring to FIG. 2, an AllnGaN-based thin film 13 is grown on the silicon substrate 10 having the porous silicon layer 11 with pores 12. Here, AlxlnyGaι.x-yN (0<x<1, 0≤y≤1, 0≤(x+y)≤1) is used for the AllnGaN-based thin film. In the growth of AlxlnyGaι.x.yN thin film, a low-temperature buffer is formed by 10 to 1000 angstroms at a temperature of 300°C to 1000°C and
AlχlnyGaι-x-yN is grown thereon at a temperature higher than 1000°C, which is used in the conventional method of growing a GaN-based thin film on the sapphire substrate. Otherwise, AlxlnyGaι-χ-yN can be directly grown on the porous silicon substrate at a temperature higher than 1000°C to form a high-quality AlxlnyGaι-x-yN thin film. Embodiment 2 The high-quality AlxlnyGaι-x-yN thin film is formed on the porous silicon
substrate 10 to construct an LED (light emitting diode) as shown in FIG. 3. Specifically, a buffer layer 100, an undoped-GaN layer 200, an N-type GaN layer 300, a MQW (multi-quantum wells) layer 400 (an example of an active layer g enerating photons using recombination of electrons and holes), and a P-type GaN layer 500 are sequentially deposited on the silicon substrate 10 having the porous silicon layer 11 using MOCVD. Then, an n-type electrode 600, a transparent electrode 700, a p-type electrode 800 and a SiNx passivation layer 900 are sequentially formed. In addition, light-emitting diodes having various structures can be formed on the porous silicon substrate 10, which can be understood by those skilled in the art. Furthermore, electronic devices such as HBT (heterojunction bipolar transistor), HEMT (high electron mobility transistor), FET (field effect transistor) and so on can be formed on the porous silicon substrate using the method of the first embodiment. Embodiment 3 An AlxlnyGaι-x-yN thin film is grown on the porous silicon substrate 10, as described in the first embodiment, to construct a device structure A. Then, the AlxlnyGaι-χ-yN thin film is separated from the silicon substrate 10 by chemically etching the porous silicon layer 11 or applying a mechanical force to the porous silicon layer 11 , to obtain a light-emitting device such as LED and LD or an electronic device. FIG. 4 shows an example of separating the device structure A from the
silicon substrate 10 using a chemical etching method, and FIG. 5 shows an example of applying a mechanical force B to the porous silicon layer 11 to form crack so as to separate the device structure A from the silicon substrate 10. For chemical etching, a chemical material such as sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, nitric acid, chromic acid, hydrogen peroxide solution, hydrofluoric acid, KOH, EDP can be used. While the present invention has been described with reference to the particular illustrative embodiments, it is not to be restricted by the embodiments but only by the appended claims. It is to be appreciated that those skilled in the art can change or modify the embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.