Processing and characterization of contacts on MBE-grown gallium nitride

Gallium nitride, a III-V compound semiconductor, is a good candidate for applications such as blue laser diodes and power devices due to its wide bandgap. One of the main challenges related to this compound is the growth of high quality crystals. If crystals with high level of purity are grown, the carrier concentration is therefore low, and the resulting high resistivity of the bulk imposes some difficulties for capacitance-related measurements. This thesis deals with the problem of processing and characterization of contacts on highly resistive materials such as unintentionally doped n-type gallium nitride. The ideal electrical model of a depletion layer is analyzed, and modifications are proposed in order to set up a framework for measurements on low carrier concentration materials. A silicon wafer was processed to emulate the behavior of unintentionally doped gallium nitride and validate the developed characterization techniques. Measurements obtained from two samples of gallium nitride are included to illustrate how these studied methodologies can be used to obtain semiconductor parameters such as carrier concentration and built-in voltage.

Name thesis:degree_name

MS

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2001

Author dc:creator

• da Cunha, Carlo Requiao

Contributors dc:contributor

• Larry Hornak.

• Electrical engineering
• Materials science

Identifier

https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/1110

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchrepository.wvu.edu:etd-2113