Ohmic contacts to Al-rich AlGaN heterostructures

Due to the ultra-wide bandgap of Al-rich AlGaN, up to 5.8eV for the structures in this study, obtaining low resistance ohmic contacts is inherently difficult to achieve. A comparative study of three different fabrication schemes is presented for obtaining ohmic contacts to an Al-rich AlGaN channel. Schottky-like behavior was observed for several different planar metallization stacks (and anneal temperatures), in addition to a dry-etch recess metallization contact scheme on Al0.85Ga0.15N/Al0.66Ga0.34N. However, a dry etch recess followed by n(+)-GaN regrowth fabrication process is reported as a means to obtain lower contact resistivity ohmic contacts on a Al0.85Ga0.15N/Al0.66Ga0.34N heterostructure. Specific contact resistivity of 5x10(-3)cm(2) was achieved after annealing Ti/Al/Ni/Au metallization.