Low specific contact resistance on epitaxial p-type 4H-SiC with a step-bunching surface**Project supported by the Key Specific Projects of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 625010101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61234006), the Natural Science Foundation of ShaanXi Province, China (Grant No. 2013JQ8012), the Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 20130203120017),

Abstract

This paper reports the performances of Ti/Al based ohmic contacts fabricated on highly doped p-type 4H-SiC epitaxial layer which has a severe step-bunching surface. Different contact schemes are investigated based on the Al:Ti composition with no more than 50 at.% Al. The specific contact resistance (SCR) is obtained to be as low as 2.6 × 10−6 Ω·cm2 for the bilayered Ti(100 nm)/Al(100 nm) contact treated with 3 min rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at 1000 °C. The microstructure analyses examined by physical and chemical characterization techniques reveal an alloy-assisted ohmic contact formation mechanism, i.e., a high degree of alloying plays a decisive role in forming the interfacial ternary Ti3SiC2 dominating the ohmic behavior of the Ti/Al based contact. Furthermore, a globally covered Ti3SiC2 layer with (0001)-oriented texture can be formed, regardless of the surface step bunching as well as its structural evolution during the metallization annealing.