Use of InN for Ohmic contacts on GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors

Abstract
Degenerately doped (n=5×1020 cm−3) InN grown by metalorganic molecular beam epitaxy is used for emitter Ohmic contacts on GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). Both abrupt InN/GaAs and graded GaAs/InGaAs/InN contact structures were investigated. Although, the contact resistivity of nonalloyed Ti/Pt/Au on InN was achieved as low as 1.8×10−7 Ω cm2, formation of a thin GaN layer at the interface of the InN/GaAs system limits nonalloyed TiPtAu metallization to contact resistivities of 10−4 Ω cm2. Whereas the graded structure, GaAs/InGaAs/InN material, system produces values of 5×10−7 Ω cm2 which resulted in the formation of conductive InN from nitridation of InAs instead of the GaN layer for the InN/GaAs system. The InN‐based emitter contacts have superior surface morphologies to the more conventional InAs layers. The C‐doped base (p=7×1019 cm−3) HBTs utilizing 2×5 μm2 InN‐based emitter contacts is demonstrated with dc gains of 35.