BCl 3 is an attractive plasma etchant for oxides because it is a Lewis acid used to scavenge native oxides on many semiconductors due to the strong B–O bonding. We investigated BCl 3 -based dry etching of the NiO/Ga 2 O 3 heterojunction system. BCl 3 /Ar Inductively Coupled Plasmas produced maximum etch rates for NiO up to 300 Å.min −1 and 800 Å.min −1 for β -Ga 2 O 3 under moderate plasma power conditions suitable for low damage pattern transfer. The selectivity for NiO: Ga 2 O 3 was <1 under all conditions. The ion energy threshold for initiation of etching of NiO was between 35–60 eV, depending on the condition and the etch mechanism was ion-driven, as determined by the linear dependence of etch rate on the square root of ion energy incident on the surface. By sharp contrast, the etching of Ga 2 O 3 had a stronger chemical component, without a well-defined ion energy threshold. The as-etched NiO and Ga 2 O 3 surfaces show chlorine residues, which can be removed on both materials by the standard 1NH 4 OH: 10H 2 O or 1HCl: 10H 2 O rinses used for native oxide removal. According to the location of the Cl 2p 3/2 peak, the Cl is ionically bonded.
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Selective Wet and Dry Etching of NiO over β-Ga 2 O 3
Patterning of NiO/Ga 2 O 3 heterojunctions requires development of selective wet and dry etch processes. Solutions of 1:4 HNO 3 :H 2 O exhibited measurable etch rates for NiO above 40 °C and activation energy for wet etching of 172.9 kJ.mol −1 (41.3 kCal.mol −1 , 1.8 eV atom −1 ), which is firmly in the reaction-limited regime. The selectivity over β -Ga 2 O 3 was infinite for temperatures up to 55 °C. The strong negative enthalpy for producing the etch product Ga(OH) 4 suggests HNO 3 -based wet etching of NiO occurs via formation and dissolution of hydroxides. For dry etching, Cl 2 /Ar Inductively Coupled Plasmas produced etch rates for NiO up to 800 Å.min −1 , with maximum selectivities of <1 over β -Ga 2 O 3 . The ion energy threshold for initiation of etching of NiO was ∼55 eV and the etch mechanism was ion-driven, as determined the linear dependence of etch rate on the square root of ion energy incident on the surface.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1856662
- PAR ID:
- 10362785
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2162-8769
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 104001
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract The band alignment of sputtered NiO on β -Ga 2 O 3 was measured by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for post-deposition annealing temperatures up to 600 °C. The band alignment is type II, staggered gap in all cases, with the magnitude of the conduction and valence band offsets increasing monotonically with annealing temperature. For the as-deposited heterojunction, Δ E V = −0.9 eV and Δ E C = 0.2 eV, while after 600 °C annealing the corresponding values are Δ E V = −3.0 eV and Δ E C = 2.12 eV. The bandgap of the NiO was reduced from 3.90 eV as-deposited to 3.72 eV after 600 °C annealing, which accounts for most of the absolute change in Δ E V −Δ E C . Differences in thermal budget may be at least partially responsible for the large spread in band offsets reported in the literature for this heterojunction. Other reasons could include interfacial disorder and contamination. Differential charging, which could shift peaks by different amounts and could potentially be a large source of error, was not observed in our samples.more » « less
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1149/2162-8777/ac94a0
