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Highly Chemical Reactive Ion Etching of Gallium Nitride

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2012

F. Karouta ,
B. Jacobs ,
I. Moerman ,
K. Jacobs ,
J.L. Weyher ,
S. Porowski ,
R. Crane  and
P.R. Hageman
F. Karouta
Affiliation:
COBRA Inter-University Research Institute on Communication Technology Eindhoven University of Technology - Department of Electrical Engineering P.O.Box 513, NL-5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands
B. Jacobs
Affiliation:
COBRA Inter-University Research Institute on Communication Technology Eindhoven University of Technology - Department of Electrical Engineering P.O.Box 513, NL-5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands
I. Moerman
Affiliation:
Department of Information Technology (INTEC), University of Ghent, Sint Pieternieuwstraat 41, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
K. Jacobs
Affiliation:
Department of Information Technology (INTEC), University of Ghent, Sint Pieternieuwstraat 41, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
J.L. Weyher
Affiliation:
High Pressure Research Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sokolowska 29/37, 01-142 Warsaw –, Poland
S. Porowski
Affiliation:
High Pressure Research Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sokolowska 29/37, 01-142 Warsaw –, Poland
R. Crane
Affiliation:
Experimental Solid State Physics III, RIM, University of Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1, 6525 ED Nijmegen, Netherlands
P.R. Hageman
Affiliation:
Experimental Solid State Physics III, RIM, University of Nijmegen, Toernooiveld 1, 6525 ED Nijmegen, Netherlands
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Abstract

: A highly chemical reactive ion etching process has been developed for MOVPE-grown GaN on sapphire. The key element for the enhancement of the chemical property during etching is the use of a fluorine containing gas in a chlorine based chemistry. In the perspective of using GaN substrates for homo-epitaxy of high quality GaN/AlGaN structures we have used the above described RIE process to smoothen Ga-polar GaN substrates. The RMS value, measured by AFM, went from 20 Å (after mechanical polishing) down to 4 Å after 6 minutes of RIE. Etching N-polar GaN resulted in a higher etch rate than Ga-polar materials (165 vs. 110 nm/min) but the resulting surface was quite rough and suffers from instability problems. Heat treatment and HCl dip showed a partial recovery of Schottky characteristics after RIE.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 595: Symposium W – GaN and Related Alloys - 1999 , 1999 , F99W11.76
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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References

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