Improving the Manufacturability of Low-Temperature GaN Ohmic Contact by Blocking the Fluorine Ion Injection

Stabilizing the CMOS-compatible low-temperature Au-free GaN Ohmic contact is a critical work that determines the performance and yield of GaN power HEMTs in mass production. The instability of this contact has been puzzling the industry and academia for years. In this work, an overlooked factor, fluorine injection, is unambiguously verified to widely exist during dielectric etching and can easily destroy the low-temperature GaN Ohmic contact formation. The injection depth is confirmed to be over 30 nm with a fluorine peak concentration of 1023 at/cm3 in vicinity of the surface. Traditional method of partial AlGaN recessing with a pretty tiny processing window is proven unfriendly for production and vulnerable to the fluorine injection. Two methods to get rid of the fluorine are proposed. The first one is to over-etch the AlGaN barrier to the GaN channel to fully remove the fluorine ions. The second is to deposit an etch-stop blocking layer of Al2O3, which is also compatible with CMOS process.