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Pd-Ge-Au Ohmic Contacts to GaAs: Reliability and Failure Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2011

T. E. Kazior
Affiliation:
Raytheon Company, Research Division, 131 Spring St, Lexington MA., 02173
H. Hieslmair
Affiliation:
Raytheon Company, Research Division, 131 Spring St, Lexington MA., 02173
R. C. Brooks
Affiliation:
Raytheon Company, Research Division, 131 Spring St, Lexington MA., 02173
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Abstract

We report on experiments that were performed to evaluate the temperature stability and long term reliability of non-alloyed Pd-Ge-Au ohmic contacts on N-type GaAs. Low resistance contacts (≈1×10−6 Ωcm2) were obtained for samples that were sintered in a conventional furnace or flash sintered in a graphite susceptor. Elevated temperature storage (≈4000 hours at 280°C) showed improved contact stability when compared to Ni-AuGe-Ni-Au control samples. Gateless MESFETs subjected to bias temperature stress measurements (Ids ≈300–350mA/mm, 2000–4000 hours at 200°C) showed no significant change in device current. This result is in contrast to devices with Ni-AuGe-Ni-Au ohmic contacts which exhibited a 6–27% decrease in current under the same test conditions. Failure analysis reveals significant electromigration and Au diffusion in the drain fingers of devices with Ni-AuGe-Ni-Au contacts. In contrast, devices with Pd-Ge-Au contacts show no elect romigration or Au diffusion in the GaAs.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1990

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References

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