Single-crystal – oriented-crystal – and epitaxy growth processes; – Forming from vapor or gaseous state – With decomposition of a precursor
Patent
1998-12-09
2000-11-28
Utech, Benjamin L.
Single-crystal, oriented-crystal, and epitaxy growth processes;
Forming from vapor or gaseous state
With decomposition of a precursor
117 97, 117106, 117952, C30B 2304, C30B 2504
Patent
active
061530107
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a nitride semiconductor growth method, a nitride semiconductor substrate, and a nitride semiconductor device and, more particularly, to a method of growing a nitride semiconductor having good crystal quality by using a substrate made of a material different from a nitride semiconductor, a nitride semiconductor substrate, and a nitride semiconductor device.
BACKGROUND ART
It is generally known that a semiconductor having few crystal defects and good crystallinity is grown on a substrate by using a substrate lattice-matched with the semiconductor to be grown. There is, however, no substrate that is lattice-matched with a nitride semiconductor, has excellent crystallinity, and allows a nitride semiconductor crystal to be stably grown. For this reason, there is no choice but to grow a nitride semiconductor on a substrate, e.g., a sapphire, spinnel, or silicon carbide substrate, that is not lattice-matched with nitride semiconductors.
Various research institutes have made attempts to manufacture GaN bulk crystals that are lattice-matched with nitride semiconductors. However, it has only been reported that GaN bulk crystals having sizes of several millimeters are obtained. That is, any practical GaN bulk crystal like the one from which many wafers are cut to be actually used as substrates for the growth of nitride semiconductor layers has not been obtained.
As a technique of manufacturing GaN substrates, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication Nos. 7-202265 and 7-165498 disclose a technique of forming a ZnO buffer layer on a sapphire substrate, growing a nitride semiconductor on the ZnO buffer layer, and dissolving and removing the ZnO buffer layer. However, since the ZnO buffer layer grown on the sapphire substrate has poor crystallinity, it is difficult to obtain a nitride semiconductor crystal having good quality by growing a nitride semiconductor on the buffer layer. In addition, it is difficult to continuously grow a nitride semiconductor thick enough to be used as a substrate on the thin ZnO buffer layer.
When a nitride semiconductor electronic element used for various electronic devices such as a light-emitting diode (LED) device, a laser diode (LD) device, and a light-receiving device is to be manufactured, if a substrate made of a nitride semiconductor having few crystal defects can be manufactured, a new nitride semiconductor having few lattice defects and forming a device structure can be grown on the substrate. Therefore, the obtained device acquires greatly improved performance. That is, a high-performance device that has not been realized in the past can be realized.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method of growing a nitride semiconductor crystal having excellent crystallinity.
More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of growing a nitride semiconductor crystal that can provide a nitride semiconductor substrate, a nitride semiconductor substrate, and a nitride semiconductor device formed on the nitride semiconductor substrate.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nitride semiconductor growth method comprising the steps of (a) forming a first selective growth mask on a support member made up of a dissimilar substrate made of a material different from a nitride semiconductor and having a major surface, and an underlayer made of a nitride semiconductor formed on the major surface of the dissimilar substrate, the first selective growth mask having a plurality of first windows selectively exposing an upper surface of the underlayer of the support member, and (b) growing nitride semiconductor portions from the upper surface portions, of the underlayer, which are exposed from the windows, by using a gaseous Group 3 element source and a gaseous nitrogen source, until the nitride semiconductor portions grown in the adjacent windows combine or unite with each other on an upper surface of the selective growth mask.
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Chocho Kazuyuki
Iwasa Naruhito
Kiyoku Hiroyuki
Kozaki Tokuya
Nakamura Shuji
Anderson Matt
Nichia Chemical Industries Ltd.
Utech Benjamin L.
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