Realization of wafer-scale single-crystalline GaN film on CMOS-compatible Si(100) substrate by ion-cutting technique

Abstract

Heterogeneous integration of gallium nitride (GaN) film on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible Si(100) substrate provides a material platform for future high-performance chips with multiple functions. In this work, a 2 inch wafer-scale single-crystalline GaN film is transferred from commercialized bulk GaN wafer onto Si(100) substrate by combining ion-slicing and modified surface-activated bonding with a sputtering-deposited Si nanolayer. The H+ implantation fluence for the exfoliation of GaN film is as low as 2.5 × 1017 cm−2 and the full width at half maximum of the (0002) x-ray rocking curve of GaN film is 203 arcsec. The sliced bulk GaN wafer is recycled, which is beneficial to reduce the cost and to enhance the mass application of the ion-cutting technique to GaN. The exfoliation mechanism of H-implanted GaN is investigated. The activation energy for slicing GaN is only 2.08 eV owing to the high quality of the GaN wafer, while the wide residual damage band is still an obstacle to improving the quality of the GaN film. The successful demonstration of wafer-scale single-crystalline GaN film on Si(100) substrate will be of great benefit to the integration of high-performance GaN devices and Si CMOS integrated circuits with mature processing technology.