Parasitic channel mitigation in III-nitride material semiconductor structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9627473-B2
Application number	US-201514847325-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 8, 2015
Priority date	Sep 8, 2015
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

III-nitride materials are generally described herein, including material structures comprising III-nitride material regions and silicon-containing substrates. Certain embodiments are related to gallium nitride materials and material structures comprising gallium nitride material regions and silicon-containing substrates.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A semiconductor structure, comprising:
a substrate comprising silicon; and
a III-nitride material region located over a surface region of the substrate,
a diffusion barrier region between the III-nitride material region and the substrate,
wherein:
the diffusion barrier region comprises at least one of a rare-earth oxide and/or a rare-earth nitride,
the surface region of the substrate comprises a low-conductivity parasitic channel or the substrate is free of a parasitic channel, and
at least a region of the substrate comprises at least one species having a relative atomic mass of less than 5 at a concentration of at least about 10 19 /cm 3 .

2. The semiconductor structure of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the surface region of the substrate comprises at least one species having a relative atomic mass of less than 5 at a concentration of at least about 10 19 /cm 3 .

3. The semiconductor structure of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises at least a layer having a resistivity of greater than about 10 2 Ohms-cm.

4. The semiconductor structure of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a silicon substrate.

5. The semiconductor structure of claim 4 , wherein the substrate is a bulk silicon wafer.

6. The semiconductor structure of claim 1 , wherein the III-nitride material region comprises GaN.

7. The semiconductor structure of claim 1 , wherein the species having a relative atomic mass of less than 5 comprises hydrogen and/or helium.

8. The semiconductor structure of claim 1 , wherein the species having a relative atomic mass of less than 5 is located within the substrate in a spatially defined pattern.

9. The semiconductor structure of 1 , wherein the surface region of the substrate comprises a low-conductivity parasitic channel.

10. The semiconductor structure of claim 9 , wherein the low-conductivity parasitic channel has a peak free carrier concentration that is less than about 10 17 /cm 3 .

11. The semiconductor structure of claim 9 , wherein the low-conductivity parasitic channel has a total integrated surface region charge of less than about 10 12 /cm 2 .

12. The semiconductor structure of claim 9 , wherein the substrate comprises a bulk region below the surface region, the bulk region having a lower peak free carrier concentration than the surface region.

13. The semiconductor structure of claim 12 , wherein the bulk region is doped with a first free carrier type and the surface region is doped with a second free carrier type.

14. The semiconductor structure of claim 12 , wherein the peak free carrier concentration in the bulk region is less than about 10 13 /cm 3 .

15. The semiconductor structure of claim 1 , wherein the III-nitride material region comprises a III-nitride nucleation layer.

16. The semiconductor structure of claim 1 , wherein the III-nitride material region comprises a III-nitride transition layer.

17. The semiconductor structure of claim 1 , wherein the III-nitride material region comprises a III-nitride buffer layer.

18. The semiconductor structure of claim 1 , wherein the III-nitride material region comprises a III-nitride device region.

Assignees

• M/A-Com Tech Solutions Holdings Inc
• Macom Tech Solutions Holdings Inc

Inventors

• Roberts John Claassen
• Linthicum Kevin J
• Hanson Allen W
• Cook Jr James W

Classifications

• H10P30/208

  of electrically inactive species · CPC title

• H10P30/204

  into Group IV semiconductors · CPC title

• H10P30/22

  using masks · CPC title

• H10P14/3416

  Nitrides · CPC title

• H10P14/3234

  being oxide semiconducting materials (Group IIB-VIA semiconductors H10P14/3224) · CPC title