Oxygen controlled PVD aluminum nitride buffer for gallium nitride-based optoelectronic and electronic devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9929310-B2
Application number	US-201313947857-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 22, 2013
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	Mar 27, 2018
Grant date	Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

Oxygen controlled PVD AlN buffers for GaN-based optoelectronic and electronic devices is described. Methods of forming a PVD AlN buffer for GaN-based optoelectronic and electronic devices in an oxygen controlled manner are also described. In an example, a method of forming an aluminum nitride (AlN) buffer layer for GaN-based optoelectronic or electronic devices involves reactive sputtering an AlN layer above a substrate, the reactive sputtering involving reacting an aluminum-containing target housed in a physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber with a nitrogen-containing gas or a plasma based on a nitrogen-containing gas. The method further involves incorporating oxygen into the AlN layer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A material stack for GaN-based optoelectronic or electronic devices, the material stack comprising:
a substrate selected from the group consisting of sapphire, Si, SiC, Si on diamond, ZnO, LiAlO 2 , MgO, GaAs, Copper and W;
an aluminum nitride (AlN) buffer layer disposed directly on the substrate, the AlN layer comprising a concentration of oxygen between 1E18 and 1E23 cm −3 , wherein a portion of the oxygen is included at an AlN/substrate interface, and wherein the AlN buffer layer has a thickness of approximately 20 nanometers; and
a high quality GaN layer disposed on the AlN buffer layer, the high quality GaN layer having XRD (002) FWHM<100 arcsec and XRD (102) FWHM<150 arcsec.

2. The material stack of claim 1 , wherein another portion of the oxygen is included at an outermost surface of the MN buffer layer.

3. The material stack of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a sapphire substrate.

4. The material stack of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a Si substrate.

5. The material stack of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a SiC substrate.

6. The material stack of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a ZnO substrate.

7. The material stack of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a LiAlO 2 substrate.

8. The material stack of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a GaAs substrate.

9. A light-emitting diode (LED) device, comprising:
a substrate selected from the group consisting of sapphire, Si, SiC, Si on diamond, ZnO, LiAlO 2 , MgO, GaAs, Copper and W;
an aluminum nitride (AlN) buffer layer disposed directly on the substrate, the AlN layer comprising a concentration of oxygen between 1E18 and 1E23 cm −3 , wherein a portion of the oxygen is included at an AlN/substrate interface, and wherein the AlN buffer layer has a thickness of approximately 20 nanometers; and
a high quality GaN layer disposed on the AlN buffer layer, the high quality GaN layer having XRD (002) FWHM<100 arcsec and XRD (102) FWHM<150 arcsec.

10. The LED device of claim 9 , wherein another portion of the oxygen is included at an outermost surface of the AlN buffer layer.

11. The LED device of claim 9 , wherein the substrate is a sapphire substrate.

12. The LED device of claim 9 , wherein the substrate is a Si substrate.

13. The LED device of claim 9 , wherein the substrate is a SiC substrate.

14. The LED device of claim 9 , wherein the substrate is a ZnO substrate.

15. The LED device of claim 9 , wherein the substrate is a LiAlO 2 substrate.

16. The LED device of claim 9 , wherein the substrate is a GaAs substrate.

17. A material stack for GaN-based optoelectronic or electronic devices, the material stack comprising:
a substrate selected from the group consisting of sapphire, Si, SiC, Si on diamond, ZnO, LiAlO 2 , MgO, GaAs, Copper and W;
an aluminum nitride (AlN) buffer layer disposed directly on the substrate, the AlN layer comprising a concentration of oxygen between 1E18 and 1E23 cm −3 , wherein a portion of the oxygen is included at an AlN/substrate interface, wherein the substrate is a Si on diamond substrate, and wherein the AlN buffer layer has a thickness of approximately 20 nanometers; and
a gallium nitride (GaN) layer disposed on the AlN buffer layer.

18. A light-emitting diode (LED) device, comprising:
a substrate selected from the group consisting of sapphire, Si, SiC, Si on diamond, ZnO, LiAlO 2 , MgO, GaAs, Copper and W;
an aluminum nitride (AlN) buffer layer disposed directly on the substrate, the AlN layer comprising a concentration of oxygen between 1E18 and 1E23 cm −3 , wherein a portion of the oxygen is included at an AlN/substrate interface, wherein the substrate is a Si on diamond substrate, and wherein the AlN buffer layer has a thickness of approximately 20 nanometers; and
a gallium nitride (GaN) layer disposed on the AlN buffer layer.

19. A material stack for GaN-based optoelectronic or electronic devices, the material stack comprising:
a substrate;
an aluminum nitride (AlN) buffer layer disposed directly on the substrate, the AlN layer comprising a concentration of oxygen between 1E18 and 1E23 cm −3 , wherein a portion of the oxygen is included at an AlN/substrate interface, and wherein the AlN buffer layer has a thickness of approximately 20 nanometers; and
a high quality GaN layer disposed on the AlN buffer layer.

20. The material stack of claim 19 , wherein another portion of the oxygen is included at an outermost surface of the AlN buffer layer.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Zhu Mingwei
• Patibandia Nag B
• Wang Rongjun
• Diehl Daniel Lee
• Agrawal Vivek
• Subramani Anantha

Classifications

• H01J37/3405

  Magnetron sputtering · CPC title

• H01J37/32467

  Material · CPC title

• H01J37/347 Primary

  Thickness uniformity of coated layers or desired profile of target erosion · CPC title

• Y02E10/544

  Solar cells from Group III-V materials · CPC title

• H01J37/32724

  Temperature · CPC title