A study on MOCVD growth window for high quality N-polar GaN for vertical device applications

Abstract

Lateral N-polar GaN devices have outperformed Ga-polar GaN counterparts in mm-wave applications. A vertical N-polar GaN device structure with higher breakdown voltage is expected to further improve the output power density. This paper is aimed at understanding the growth conditions for such a vertical N-polar GaN device stack. A vertical device stack requires high-quality n-GaN layer with low unintentional dopant concentration and high electron mobility for better ON resistance–breakdown voltage performance. A systematic study by varying reactor temperature, pressure and NH3 flow rate is performed in the metal organic chemical vapor deposition growth of N-polar GaN for vertical device structure. Structural quality of the sample is increased with increase growth temperature and higher NH3 flow rate, yet an increase in surface roughness is observed for highest temperature used. The N-polar GaN grown at the optimized conditions exhibited a x-ray diffraction rocking curve full width half maximum of symmetric (0002) and skew-symmetric (20 ) scans of 358″ and 569″ respectively with a low oxygen and carbon concentration of 6 × 1016 cm−3 and 5 × 1016 cm−3, respectively. The optimized sample exhibited a low screw dislocation density of 2.5 × 108 cm−2 on sapphire substrate. A gradual increase in the bulk mobility of electrons with decrease in screw dislocation density in N-polar GaN is also reported.