Ion Implantation Processing of Gaas and Related Compounds

Abstract

AbstractThe formation of doped or semi-insulating layers by ion implantation in both Ga- and In- based semiconductors is reviewed. The Ga-based materials (GaAs, AIGaAs, GaP, GaSb) tend to show similar characteristics in terms of producing relatively low (n ≤ 3 × 1018 cm-3) maximum carrier densities for donor implanted layers, and much higher values for acceptor implants (p ≤ 5 × 1019 cm-3 ). Ion-induced damage is widely used for device isolation in these materials, with midgap levels associated with the damage trapping free carriers and leading to semi-insulating behaviour. By contrast, the In-based materials (InP, InAs, InSb and InGaAs) show higher maximum carrier densities for acceptor implants than for donor implants, and the use of ion damage for isolation purposes is much less effective than in GaAs. All of these materials display singularly poor regrowth characteristics, requiring in some cases the use of elevated temperature implantation to prevent amorphization