Received 30 October 2006; accepted 3 December 2006; published online 3 January 2007
A metallization scheme with high reflectance and smooth surface morphology has been developed
for obtaining low resistance Ohmic contacts on p-type GaN. Excellent Ohmic characteristics with
a specific contact resistivity as low as 9.0 106 cm2 were obtained by annealing evaporated Ni
10 / Ag 1500 / Mg 500 contact at 450 C for 2 min in O2 ambient. Additionally, a high
reflectance over 80% was observed in the 400 500 nm wavelength range. The Mg overlayer
suppressed excessive incorporation of oxygen into the Ni and Ag layers during oxidation annealing,
leading to high reflectance and smooth surface quality of the Ohmic contact. 2007 American
Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2430405
Flip-chip and vertical-structure designs have been exploited in GaN-based light emitting diodes LEDs to improve light extraction efficiency and thermal management of
the devices.1,2 In these configurations, emitted light from active regions of the devices is reflected up from reflective
Ohmic contacts on p-type GaN. Ag is very suitable for reflective Ohmic contacts due to its high reflectance 95%
and surface plasmon coupling to visible light emissions.3 In
addition, low contact resistivities in the order of 105 cm2
have been obtained from Ag-based Ohmic contacts annealed
in oxygen ambient.47 However, annealing in oxygen ambient causes Ag to be oxidized and/or agglomerated, leading to
degradation in both reflectance and adhesion to GaN and
overlaid metals.68 Therefore, preventing Ag from oxidation
and/or agglomeration is a key aspect in obtaining high quality Ag-based Ohmic contacts suitable for application to highpower LEDs of solid-state lighting.
In this letter, we present a new metallization scheme
with high reflectance 80% and low contact resistivity
105 cm2. Employing a Mg overlayer on Ni/ Ag
Ohmic contacts on p-type GaN, light reflectance and surface
morphology of the contacts improved significantly. Interfacial reactions between contact metals and GaN were analyzed using depth profiles of secondary ion mass spectroscopy SIMS and synchrotron photoemission spectroscopy
SRPES. Based on these experimental results, effects of the
Mg overlayer on electrical and optical properties of Ni/ Ag
contacts are discussed.
Mg-doped p-type GaN films used in this work were
grown on 0001 sapphire substrate using metal organic
chemical vapor deposition. Net hole concentration was determined to be 3 1017 cm3 by Hall measurements. For measurements of specific contact resistivity using the transmission line method TLM, active regions were defined by
inductively coupled plasma of Cl2 / BCl3 gas, followed by
dipping samples into a boiling aqua regia solution to remove
surface oxides.9 TLM test structures were patterned on the
surface-treated samples using a photoresist. Prior to metal
deposition, all samples were dipped in HCl:de-ionized water
1:1 solution for 2 min. After the HCl treatment, Ni
a
0003-6951/2007/901/012106/3/$23.00
90, 012106-1
2007 American Institute of Physics
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012106-2
FIG. 2. Light reflectance spectra of as-deposited Ag, annealed Ni/ Ag, and
Ni/ Ag/ Mg contacts. Annealing was carried out at 450 C for 2 min in O2
ambient.
Ni/ Ag/ Mg contact still showed Ohmic behavior with a contact resistivity as low as 1.7 104 cm2 after annealing at
600 C. This result suggests superior characteristics of the
Ni/ Ag/ Mg contact to previously reported contacts on p-type
GaN.48
Figure 2 shows light reflectance spectra of as-deposited
Ag and O2-annealed Ni/ Ag and Ni/ Ag/ Mg contacts. The
as-deposited Ag contact revealed a high reflectance value of
95.0% at the 460 nm wavelength. For the Ni/ Ag contact, the
value was measured to be 76.7%. It is noteworthy that the
reflectance was significantly improved for the Ni/ Ag/ Mg
contact. It was measured to be 82.5% at the 460 nm
wavelength.
In order to study interfacial reactions between contact
metals and GaN, SIMS depth profiles of Ni/ Ag and
Ni/ Ag/ Mg contacts after annealing were obtained, as shown
in Figs. 3a and 3b. For the Ni/ Ag contact, Ag completely
indiffused to the interfacial region, and Ga atoms significantly outdiffused from GaN to the surface. The oxygen profile coincided with the Ni profile, indicating the formation of
NiO. Significant intermixing between contact metals and
GaN is consistent with the previous results.7 For the
Ni/ Ag/ Mg contact, Ag indiffusion and subsequent Ga outdifusion were also observed. The coincidence of the oxygen
profile with the Mg profile indicates the formation of MgO
near the surface. It is easily ascertained that oxygen concentration drastically reduced near the Mg/ Ag interface and thus
Ni was not transformed into NiO. This suggests that the Mg
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012106-3
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