Method for stripping gallium nitride substrate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12243746-B2
Application number	US-202218697445-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2022
Priority date	Feb 22, 2022
Publication date	Mar 4, 2025
Grant date	Mar 4, 2025

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for stripping a gallium nitride substrate, including: a gallium nitride substrate with a gallium nitride epitaxial structure directly grown on an upper surface thereof is acquired; an interior of the gallium nitride substrate is scanned and irradiated via the epitaxial structure by a laser beam, so as to generate a decomposition layer in the gallium nitride substrate, the laser beam being a laser having a pulse width on the order of less than 10 −15 s, and a distance between the decomposition layer and the upper surface of the gallium nitride substrate being less than a thickness of the gallium nitride substrate; and the gallium nitride substrate is separated at the decomposition layer, so as to obtain a stripped gallium nitride substrate and a semiconductor device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for stripping a gallium nitride substrate, comprising:
acquiring a gallium nitride substrate with a gallium nitride epitaxial structure directly grown on an upper surface thereof;
scanning and irradiating an interior of the gallium nitride substrate via the gallium nitride epitaxial structure by a laser beam, so as to generate a decomposition layer in the gallium nitride substrate, the laser beam being a laser having a pulse width on the order of less than 10 −15 s, and a distance between the decomposition layer and the upper surface of the gallium nitride substrate being less than a thickness of the gallium nitride substrate; and
separating the gallium nitride substrate at the decomposition layer, so as to obtain a stripped gallium nitride substrate and a semiconductor device,
wherein before scanning and irradiating the interior of the gallium nitride substrate via the gallium nitride epitaxial structure by the laser beam, the method further comprises:
grooving the gallium nitride epitaxial structure and the gallium nitride substrate by a laser grooving technique to form grooves, depths of the grooves being equal to the distance between the decomposition layer and the upper surface of the gallium nitride epitaxial structure.

2. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the grooves are distributed in a grid.

3. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 1 , wherein after obtaining the stripped gallium nitride substrate and the semiconductor device, the method further comprises:
polishing a separated surface of the stripped gallium nitride substrate.

4. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 1 , wherein separating the gallium nitride substrate at the decomposition layer comprises:
bonding the upper surface of the gallium nitride epitaxial structure to a carrier; and
applying opposing forces to the carrier and the gallium nitride substrate, so that the gallium nitride substrate is separated at the decomposition layer.

5. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a wavelength of the laser beam is between 1000 nm and 1040 nm, pulse energy of the laser beam is between 3 μJ and 5 μJ, a pulse repetition rate of the laser beam is between 1 kHz and 2 kHz, and a scanning speed of the laser beam is between 500 um/s and 1000 um/s.

6. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 1 , wherein before acquiring the gallium nitride substrate with the gallium nitride epitaxial structure directly grown on the upper surface thereof, the method further comprises:
growing the gallium nitride epitaxial structure on the upper surface of the gallium nitride substrate.

7. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 6 , wherein growing the gallium nitride epitaxial structure on the upper surface of the gallium nitride substrate comprises:
growing a first gallium nitride layer on the upper surface of the gallium nitride substrate;
growing a second gallium nitride layer on an upper surface of the high-resistance layerfirst gallium nitride layer;
growing an insertion layer on an upper surface of the second gallium nitride layer;
growing a barrier layer on an upper surface of the insertion layer; and
growing a capping layer on an upper surface of the barrier layer.

8. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 7 , wherein material of the insertion layer is aluminum nitride, material of the barrier layer is aluminum gallium nitride, and material of the capping layer is gallium nitride.

9. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 7 , wherein a thickness of the first gallium nitride layer is between 1 μm and 3 μm, a thickness of the second gallium nitride layer is between 10 nm and 100 nm, a thickness of the barrier layer is between 10 nm and 30 nm, and a thickness of the capping layer is between 1 nm and 5 nm.

10. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 7 , wherein growing the first gallium nitride layer on the upper surface of the gallium nitride substrate comprises: forming the first gallium nitride layer on the upper surface of the gallium nitride substrate by a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition method;
growing the second gallium nitride layer on the upper surface of the first gallium nitride layer comprises: forming the second gallium nitride layer on the upper surface of the first gallium nitride layer by a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition method; and
growing the barrier layer on the upper surface of the insertion layer comprises:
forming the barrier layer on the upper surface of the insertion layer by a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition method.

11. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 7 , wherein photon energy of the laser beam is less than a band gap of the barrier layer.

12. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 1 , wherein under the condition of scanning and irradiating the gallium nitride substrate, the laser beam scans and irradiates the interior of the gallium nitride substrate in a continuous track.

13. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the continuous track is an S-shaped track or a spiral track.

14. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 1 , wherein under the condition of scanning and irradiating the gallium nitride substrate, the laser beam scans and irradiates the interior of the gallium nitride substrate in a plurality of intermittent tracks.

15. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 14 , wherein under the condition of scanning and irradiating the interior of the gallium nitride substrate in the plurality of intermittent tracks, the laser beam scans multiple times in a length direction or a width direction of the gallium nitride substrate.

16. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 14 , wherein under the condition of scanning and irradiating the interior of the gallium nitride substrate in the plurality of intermittent tracks, a laser is turned off after scanning in each individual track is finished, and is then turned on to perform next scanning until scanning of the gallium nitride substrate is finished, the laser being used to emit the laser beam.

17. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a thickness of the stripped gallium nitride substrate is greater than 150 μm.

18. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a focus of the laser beam is parallel to the upper surface of the gallium nitride substrate.

19. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 1 , wherein after obtaining the stripped gallium nitride substrate and the semiconductor device, the method further comprises: transferring the semiconductor device onto a flexible substrate.

20. The method for stripping the gallium nitride substrate as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the grooves are distributed in a manner of a plurality of parallel lines.

Assignees

• Suzhou Metabrain Intelligent Technology Co Ltd

Inventors

• Guo Fen
• Su kang
• Man Hongtao
• Li Tuo

Classifications

• H10P52/402

  of semiconductor materials · CPC title

• H10P52/00 Primary

  Grinding, lapping or polishing of wafers, substrates or parts of devices · CPC title

• H10P14/3416

  Nitrides · CPC title

• H10P14/2908

  Nitrides · CPC title

• H10P34/42 Primary

  with electromagnetic radiation, e.g. laser annealing (laser cutting H10P54/20) · CPC title