title: Investigation of metallic interdiffusion in Al(x)Ga(1-x)N/GaN/sapphire heterostructures used for microelectronic devices by SEM/EDX and SIMS depth profiling.
abstract: Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) depth profiling has been applied to the study of the thermal annealing of ohmic contacts for high electron mobility transistors. The metallic stacks (Ti/Al/Ni/Au) were deposited over the Al(0.28)Ga(0.72)N/GaN/sapphire heterostructures and subjected to a rapid thermal annealing (850 degrees C for 30 s under N(2) atmosphere) to improve the contact performance. The surface morphology and the in-depth chemical distribution of the layered contacts were severely modified due to the treatment. These modifications have been analyzed by SIMS depth profiling and scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis. The SIMS analysis conditions have been optimized to achieve simultaneously good sensitivity and to avoid ion-induced mixing effects produced by the primary beam sputtering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Téllez
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Vadillo
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Laserna