中国物理B ›› 2013, Vol. 22 ›› Issue (8): 87202-087202.doi: 10.1088/1674-1056/22/8/087202

• CONDENSED MATTER: ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE, ELECTRICAL, MAGNETIC, AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES • 上一篇    下一篇

Investigation of chlorine-based etchants in wet and dry etching technology for an InP planar Gunn diode

白阳a b, 贾锐a, 武德起a, 金智a, 刘新宇a, 林美玉b   

  1. a Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China;
    b China Academy of Telecommunication Research of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China (MIIT), Beijing 100191, China
  • 收稿日期:2013-01-04 修回日期:2013-01-29 出版日期:2013-06-27 发布日期:2013-06-27
  • 基金资助:
    Project supported by the Main Direction Program of Knowledge Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 2A2011YYYJ-1123).

Investigation of chlorine-based etchants in wet and dry etching technology for an InP planar Gunn diode

Bai Yang (白阳)a b, Jia Rui (贾锐)a, Wu De-Qi (武德起)a, Jin Zhi (金智)a, Liu Xin-Yu (刘新宇)a, Lin Mei-Yu (林美玉)b   

  1. a Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China;
    b China Academy of Telecommunication Research of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China (MIIT), Beijing 100191, China
  • Received:2013-01-04 Revised:2013-01-29 Online:2013-06-27 Published:2013-06-27
  • Contact: Jia Rui E-mail:jiarui@ime.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    Project supported by the Main Direction Program of Knowledge Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 2A2011YYYJ-1123).

摘要: Mesa etching technology is considerably important in the Gunn diode fabrication process. In this paper we fabricate InP Gunn diodes with two different kinds of chlorine-based etchants for the mesa etching for comparative study. We use two chlorine-based etchants, one is HCl-based solution (HCl/H3PO4), and the other is Cl2-based gas mixture by utilizing inductively coupled plasma system (ICP). The results show that the wet etching (HCl-based) offers low cost and approximately vertical sidewall, whilst ICP system (Cl2-based) offers an excellent and uniform vertical sidewall, and the over-etching is tiny on the top and the bottom of mesa. And the fabricated mesas of Gunn diodes have average etching rates of ~ 0.6 μ/min and ~ 1.2 μ/min, respectively. The measured data show that the current of Gunn diode by wet etching is lower than that by ICP, and the former has a higher threshold voltage. It provides a low-cost and reliable method which is potentially applied to the fabrication of chip terahertz sources.

关键词: InP etching, InP Gunn device, ICP, wet chemical etching

Abstract: Mesa etching technology is considerably important in the Gunn diode fabrication process. In this paper we fabricate InP Gunn diodes with two different kinds of chlorine-based etchants for the mesa etching for comparative study. We use two chlorine-based etchants, one is HCl-based solution (HCl/H3PO4), and the other is Cl2-based gas mixture by utilizing inductively coupled plasma system (ICP). The results show that the wet etching (HCl-based) offers low cost and approximately vertical sidewall, whilst ICP system (Cl2-based) offers an excellent and uniform vertical sidewall, and the over-etching is tiny on the top and the bottom of mesa. And the fabricated mesas of Gunn diodes have average etching rates of ~ 0.6 μ/min and ~ 1.2 μ/min, respectively. The measured data show that the current of Gunn diode by wet etching is lower than that by ICP, and the former has a higher threshold voltage. It provides a low-cost and reliable method which is potentially applied to the fabrication of chip terahertz sources.

Key words: InP etching, InP Gunn device, ICP, wet chemical etching

中图分类号:  (III-V and II-VI semiconductors)

  • 72.80.Ey
73.40.Sx (Metal-semiconductor-metal structures) 73.61.Ey (III-V semiconductors)