Process Damage and Contamination Effects for Shallow Si Implanted GaAs

Abstract

During the fabrication of refractory gate MESFETs, the sputter deposition of a WSix gate and reactive ion etching (RIE) of the gate pattern can lead to surface damage and contamination. To study these effects, GaAs with a shallow silicon implant was subjected to RIE alone or to both a WSix sputter deposition and RIE then annealed. The GaAs surface damage due to the WSix sputter deposition and RIE at self-bias under 200V was healed out by 800°C SiNx capped furnace annealing. Sheet resistance and Hall mobility measurements correlated with the diffusion of compensating impurities into the bulk of the GaAs. SIMS profiles indicated that the major contaminants (Fe, Cr, Ni, Cu, V) were initially present in the W targets and were thus present in the WSix layers. These contaminants were left on the surface of the GaAs after the gate RIE and were driven into the bulk on capped annealing. An HCl etch was found to remove the contaminants, resulting in lower sheet resistances for implanted and processed GaAs. Refractory gate submicron MESFETs fabricated using an HCl etch after gate RIE showed reduced access resistance. © 1991, The Electrochemical Society, Inc. All rights reserved.