This study investigated the growth of AlN epitaxial films on 2-in. Si(111) via metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. By introducing triethylboron (TEB) during trimethylaluminum pretreatment, a nearly crack free AlN epilayer with a thickness of 500 nm was acquired. The x-ray diffraction rocking curves of AlN (002) and (102) exhibited full width at half maximum values of 0.22° and 0.36°, respectively. Atomic force microscopy image analysis showed that after the introduction of TEB, larger grains appeared on the surface of Si(111) substrate, promoting the 3D growth pattern of the subsequent AlN buffer layer. Laytec reflection curves depicted the morphological transition from 3D to 2D growth mode during AlN deposition. At the same time, the curvature value was significantly reduced by 20 km−1, and the Raman spectrum peak of E2(high) shifted from 648.7 to 652.5 cm−1, indicating that the surface tensile stress was greatly reduced, effectively suppressing the crack problem of AlN on Si(111).
The development of low-power computing sectors requires compact, power-efficient and high-performance integrated circuits. Hybrid technology that combines n-type metal oxide thin-film transistors and p-type organic thin-film transistors offers a potential solution. However, increasing the transistor density of these systems through vertical stacking is challenging due to issues related to thermal budget and interface roughness. Here we report a six-stack hybrid complementary transistor technology that has 41 layers and uses n-type indium oxide (In 2 O 3 ) and a p-type organic semiconductor (C16IDT-BT) as channel materials. We test 600 transistors and show that n-type oxide devices and p-type organic devices exhibit comparable field-effect mobilities and saturation currents. We also create 300 hybrid inverters by integrating the oxide and organic transistors; the circuits exhibit a gain of 94.84 V V −1 and a power consumption of 0.47 µW. We also fabricate NAND and NOR gates comprising transistors from four stacks. Thermal stability analysis shows that device characteristics begin to degrade above 50 °C, a known limitation of low-thermal-budget processes. Such performance is sufficient for many large-area electronics applications, but further thermal optimization will be necessary to extend operational robustness towards standard industrial conditions.
Gallium oxide (Ga2O3) has gained considerable attention due to its wide bandgap, the availability of native substrates, and its excellent properties for solar-blind photodetectors, transparent electronics, and next-generation power devices. However, the expensive Ga2O3 native substrates have restricted its widespread adoption. To reduce costs and further the development of β-Ga2O3-based devices, there is a need for bandgap-tunable oxide films with high crystal quality for deep-ultraviolet (DUV) photodetectors and high-breakdown-field power devices. This study introduces a Thermal Interdiffusion Alloying method to address these requirements. It focuses on developing deep ultraviolet (DUV) photodetectors using β-Ga2O3 thin films on sapphire substrates by promoting the diffusion of aluminum (Al) atoms from the substrate into the film, resulting in the formation of aluminum gallium oxide (β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3). The aluminum content is controlled by adjusting the process temperature, allowing for tunable detection wavelengths and enhanced DUV sensing capabilities. Radio frequency (RF) sputtering optimizes the film’s quality by adjusting the sputtering power and the argon/oxygen (Ar/O2) flow ratio. Material analysis indicates that this method expands the optical bandgap and shifts the response wavelength to 210 nm, significantly boosting the performance of the fabricated photodetectors. This research presents considerable potential for advancing DUV photodetectors across various disinfection applications.
The polarization-induced quantum confined Stark effect has been recognized as a significant factor contributing to the Internal Quantum Efficiency (IQE) droop in light-emitting diodes (LEDs). This study focuses on the design of LEDs by investigating the InAlN/AlGaN interface. By incorporating InAlN quantum wells, a polarization-matched (PM) multi-quantum well (MQW) LED architecture was developed. While the flat conduction and valence bands on PM MQWs indicate an improved recombination rate, it is crucial to examine the impact on IQE, considering carrier confinement and injection efficiency influenced by the band offsets. This paper presents a numerical analysis comparing two LEDs emitting at 245 and 275 nm, respectively. The results demonstrate that the PM LED operating at 275 nm exhibits enhanced performance, benefiting from high probability density overlap. Conversely, the PM LED emitting at 245 nm demonstrates poor confinement, resulting in an overall low performance, regardless of polarization matching.
In this work, enhancement-mode p-MOSFETs on p-GaN/AlGaN/GaN-on-Si substrates were fabricated using a gate recess process that combines reactive ion etching (RIE) with atomic layer etching (ALE), where ALE is employed as an interface engineering approach following conventional plasma etching to mitigate recess-induced interface damage. Compared with RIE-only devices, the RIE + ALE devices yield smoother surfaces and significantly suppress interface trap density. These interface improvements lead to enhanced subthreshold characteristics and markedly tighter device-to-device uniformity. In particular, the subthreshold swing decreased from 365 ± 179 to 149 ± 17 mV/dec, while the off-state leakage current was suppressed from 1.9 ± 3.6 × 10−7 to 8.5 ± 5.5 × 10−9 mA/mm. These results demonstrate that ALE provides an effective interface engineering approach for suppressing interface damage and enabling uniform enhancement-mode p-MOSFETs, highlighting its potential for reliable GaN complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor logic and power integrated circuits.
Reliable engineering of low-resistance metal semiconductor (M/S) contacts is critical for advancing indium oxide (In2O3) based semiconductor technologies. As device dimensions shrink to the micrometer regime, minimizing contact resistance becomes essential to ensure channel limited operation rather than contact dominated. In this study, we systematically optimized Ni/In2O3 contacts using mild rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at 250 °C in nitrogen ambient conditions compatible with back-end-of-line (BEOL) processing and evaluated their performance using the transfer line method (TLM). Ni/In2O3 TLM structures were fabricated via photolithography and liftoff, followed by RTA at varying durations. Quantitative TLM analysis demonstrated a substantial reduction in contact resistance (RC) to 6.24 Ω, normalized contact resistance (N · RC) to 1.25×10−1 Ω cm, specific contact resistivity (ρC) to 1.53×10−6 Ω cm2, and a short transfer length (LT) of 123 nm, all achieved without intentional doping or complex metallization. This process driven, BEOL compatible approach provides a robust route to low-resistance contacts in In2O3 thin films, enabling a reliable foundation for next generation low power, high performance oxide electronics.