Non-alloyed ohmic contact to III-V semiconductors-on-silicon.

摘要

This invention concerns a non-alloyed ohmic contact to III-V semiconductor material in a III-V semiconductor device on a Si base (11). The ohmic contact includes at least one set of layers (14,15; 16,17; 18,19) comprising a delta-doped monolayer (15,17,19) and a thin layer of undoped III-V semiconductor material (14,16,18) which is 2.5nm or less in thickness, said at least one set of layers being upon a doped III-V semiconductor layer (13). An epitaxial layer of metal (20) upon an uppermost of the layers of the said set of layers completes the ohmic contact, said metal being capable of wetting the surface of the III-V semiconductor material and of being epitaxially grown on the said III-V semiconductor material. At least the said at least one set of layers and the metal layer are deposited by molecular beam epitaxy, thus avoiding formation of oxides and growing the metal epitaxially so that the metal layer is crystalline at least near the interface between the metal and the semiconductor material. The epitaxial deposition of the metal is conducted at a relatively low temperature of the semiconductor material. In an illustrative embodiment the metal is Al and is epitaxially deposited at a temperature within the range 10 DEG C to 100 DEG C, preferably 20 DEG C to 50 DEG C, with 25 DEG C being most preferable. The resultant contacts exhibit specific resistance which is lower and current passing capabilities which are higher than those of prior art non-alloyed ohmic contacts. However, the most noteworthy advantage of using Al in an integrated opto-electronic circuit comprising a III-V semiconductor device on a Si base, is the avoidance of "purple plague". The "purple plague" may arise when gold-based contacts in III-V semiconductor devices and Al-based contacts in Si-devices, all in a single integrated circuit, come in contact, especially at higher temperatures (e.g.300 DEG C).