Photoelectrochemical wet etching of group III nitrides

Details Photoelectrochemical wet etching of group III nitrides Photoelectrochemical wet etching of group III nitrides

1996-04-30

1998-06-30

Breneman, R. Bruce

Semiconductor device manufacturing: process

Chemical etching

Liquid phase etching

205655, 205666, H01L 21302

Patent

active

057733694

ABSTRACT:
A method of processing semiconductor films and layers, especially Group III Nitride films, has been achieved, using laser-enhanced, room-temperature wet etching with dilute etchants. Etch rates of a few hundred .ANG./min up to a few thousand .ANG./min have been achieved for unintentionally doped n-type Group III Nitride films grown by MOCVD on a sapphire substrate. The etching is thought to take place photoelectrochemically with holes and electrons generated by incident illumination from 4.5 mW of HeCd laser power enhancing the oxidation and reduction reactions in an electrochemical cell.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4559115 (1985-12-01), Inoue
patent: 4576691 (1986-03-01), Kohl et al.
patent: 4613417 (1986-09-01), Laskowski et al.
patent: 4874484 (1989-10-01), Foell et al.
patent: 5454915 (1995-10-01), Shor et al.
Y. Pauleau, A. Bouteville, J.J. Hantzpergue, and J.C.Remey, and A. Cachard, "Composition, Kinetics, and Mechanism of Growth of Chemical Vapor-Depositied Aluminum Nitride Films," J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 129, No. 5, May 1982, 1045-1052.
Mark N. Ruberto, Xiaoge Zhang, Robert Scarmozzino, Alan E. Willner, Dragan V. Podlesnik, and Richard M. Osgood, Jr., "The Laser-Controlled Micrometer-Scale Photoelectrochemical Etching of III-V Semiconductors," J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 138, No. 4, Apr. 1991, 1174-1185.
A.T. Ping, C. Youtsey, and I. Adesida, "Chemically Assisted Ion Beam Etching of Gallium Nitride," Journal of Electronic Materials, vol. 24, No. 4, 1995, 229-234.
Q.X. Guo, O. Kato, and A. Yoshida, "Chemical Etching of Indium Nitride," J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 139, No. 7, Jul. 1992, 2008-2009.
S.J. Pearton, C.R. Abernathy, F. Ren, J.R. Lothian, P.W. Wisk, and A. Katz, "Dry and Wet Etching Characteristics of InN, AIN, and GaN Deposited by Electron Cyclotron Resonance Metalorganic Molecular Beam Epitaxy," J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, vol. 11, No. 4, Jul./Aug. 1993, 1772-1775.
T.Y. Sheng, Z.Q. Yu, and G.J. Collins, "Disk Hydrogen Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition of Aluminum Nitride," Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 52, No. 7, Feb. 15, 1988, 576-578.
R.W. Haisty, "Photoetching and Plating of Gallium Arsenide," J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 108, No. 8, Aug. 1961, 790-794.
F. Kuhn-Kuhnenfeld, "Selective Photoetching of Gallium Arsenide," J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 119, No. 8, Aug. 1972, 1063-1068.
Reena Khare and Evelyn L. Hu, "Dopant Selective Photoelectrochemical Etching of GaAs Homostructures," J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 138, No. 5, May 1991, 1516-1519.
Reena Khare, Evelyn L. Hu, Julia J. Brown, and Melissa A. Melendes, "Micromachining in III-V semiconductors using wet photoelectrochemical etching," J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B, vol. 11, No. 6, Nov./Dec. 1993, 2497-2501.
R. Khare, D.B. Young, and E.L. Hu, "The Bandgap-Selective Photochemical Etching of GaAs/Al.sub.x Ga.sub.1-x As Heterostructures with Varying Mole Fraction," J. Electroelectrochem. Soc., vol. 140, No. 7, Jul. 1993, L117-L118.
S.J. Pearton, C.B. Vartuli, R.J. Shul, and J.C. Zolper, "Dry Etching and Implantation Characteristics of III-N Alloys," Materials Science and Engineering, vol. B31, 1995, 309-317.
J.R. Mileham, S.J. Pearton, C.R. Abernathy and J.D. MacKenzie, "Wet Chemical Etching of AIN," Appl. Hys. Lett., vol. 67, No. 8, Aug. 21, 1995, 119-120 & 1121.
M. Lax, "Temperature Rise Induced by a Laser Beam," J. of Applied Physics, vol. 48, No. 9, Sep. 1977, 3919-3924.
Morkoc, S. Strite, G.B. Gao, M.E. Lin, B. Sverdlov and M. Burns, "Large-band-gap SiC, III-V Nitride, and II-VI ZnSe-based Semiconductor Device Technologies," J. Applied Physics, vol. 76, No. 3, Aug. 1, 1994, 1363-1398.
Pearton, S. J. et al "Dry and wet etching characteristics of InN, AIN and GaN deprosited by ECR metalorganic molecular beam epitaxy" J. Vac. Sci. Technol.A vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 1772-1775, Jul 1993.
Lu, J. et al "Photoassisted Anodic Etching of Gallium Nitride" J. Electrochem. Soc. vol. 144, No. 1, pp. L8-11, Jan. 1997.
Youtsey et al "Broad-area photoelectrochemical etching of GaN" Electron. Lett. vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 245-246, Jan. 1997.
Vartuli, C.B. et al "Wet Chemical Etching of AIN and InAIN in KOH Solutions" J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 143, No. 11, pp. 3681-3684, Nov. 1996.
Pankove, J.I. "Electrolytic Etching of GaN" J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 119, No. 8, pp. 1118-1119, Aug. 1972.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Photoelectrochemical wet etching of group III nitrides does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Photoelectrochemical wet etching of group III nitrides, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Photoelectrochemical wet etching of group III nitrides will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1858908