Improved RF power performance of InAlN/GaN HEMT by optimizing rapid thermal annealing process for high-performance low-voltage terminal applications

Improved radio-frequency(RF)power performance of InAlN/GaN high electron mobility transistor(HEMT)is achieved by optimizing the rapid thermal annealing(RTA)process for high-performance low-voltage terminal applications.By optimizing the RTA temperature and time,the optimal annealing condition is found to enable low parasitic resistance and thus a high-performance device.Besides,compared with the non-optimized RTA HEMT,the optimized one demonstrates smoother ohmic metal surface morphology and better heterojunction quality including the less degraded heterojunction sheet resistance and clearer heterojunction interfaces as well as negligible material out-diffusion from the barrier to the channel and buffer.Benefiting from the lowered parasitic resistance,improved maximum output current density of 2279 mA·mm^(-1)and higher peak extrinsic transconductance of 526 mS·mm^(-1)are obtained for the optimized RTA HEMT.In addition,due to the superior heterojunction quality,the optimized HEMT shows reduced off-state leakage current of 7×10^(-3)mA·mm^(-1)and suppressed current collapse of only 4%,compared with those of 1×10^(-1)mA·mm^(-1)and 15%for the non-optimized one.At 8 GHz and V_(DS)of 6 V,a significantly improved power-added efficiency of 62%and output power density of 0.71 W·mm^(-1)are achieved for the optimized HEMT,as the result of the improvement in output current,knee voltage,off-state leakage current,and current collapse,which reveals the tremendous advantage of the optimized RTA HEMT in high-performance low-voltage terminal applications.

Solid-phase Crystallization of Amorphous Silicon Films by Rapid Thermal Annealing

The morphous silicon films prepared by PECVD at substrate temperatures of 30℃ have been crystallized by rapid thermal annealing method, the budget of time-temperature in the annealing process is 600℃ for 120s, 850℃ for 120s, and 950℃ for 120s. The results indicate the crystallization at 850℃ and 950℃ are better as shown in micro-Raman scattering and scanning electronic microscope.

Thermal annealing induced photocarrier radiometry enhancement for ion implanted silicon wafers

An experimental study on the photocarrier radiometry signals of As^＋ ion implanted silicon wafers before and after rapid thermal annealing is performed. The dependences of photocarrier radiometry amplitude on ion implantation dose （1×10^11-1×10^16/cm^2）, implantation energy （20-140 keV） and subsequent isochronical annealing temperature （500- 1100℃ are investigated. The results show that photocarrier radiometry signals are greatly enhanced for implanted samples annealed at high temperature, especially for those with a high implantation dose. The reduced surface recombination rate resulting from a high built-in electric field generated by annealing-activated impurities in the pn junction is believed to be responsible for the photocarrier radiometry signal enhancement. Photocarrier radiometry is contactless and can therefore be used as an effective in-line tool for the thermal annealing process monitoring of the ion-implanted wafers in semiconductor industries.

Thermal annealing behaviour of Al/Ni/Au multilayer on n-GaN Schottky contacts

Recently GaN-based high electron mobility transistors （HEMTs） have revealed the superior properties of a high breakdown field and high electron saturation velocity. Reduction of the gate leakage current is one of the key issues to be solved for their further improvement. This paper reports that an Al layer as thin as 3 nm was inserted between the conventional Ni/Au Schottky contact and n-GaN epilayers, and the Schottky behaviour of Al/Ni/Au contact was investigated under various annealing conditions by current-voltage （I-V） measurements. A non-linear fitting method was used to extract the contact parameters from the I-V characteristic curves. Experimental results indicate that reduction of the gate leakage current by as much as four orders of magnitude was successfully recorded by thermal annealing. And high quality Schottky contact with a barrier height of 0.875 eV and the lowest reverse-bias leakage current, respectively, can be obtained under 12 min annealing at 450 ℃ in N2 ambience.

Effects of rapid thermal annealing on the room-temperature NO_2-sensing properties of WO_3 thin films under LED radiation

WO3 thin films were sputtered onto alumina substrates by DC facing-target magnetron sputtering. One sample was rapid-thermal-annealed （RTA） at 600 ℃ in a gas mixture of N2：O2 = 4 ： 1, and as a comparison, another was conventionally thermal-annealed at 600 ℃ in air. The morphology of both was investigated by scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and atomic force microscopy （AFM）, and the crystallization structure and phase identification were characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD）. The NO2-sensing measurements were taken under LED light at room temperature. The sensitivity of the RTA-treated sample was found to be high, up to nearly 100, whereas the sensitivity of the conventionally thermal-annealed sample was about five under the same conditions. From the much better selectivity and response-recovery characteristics, it can be concluded that compared to conventional thermal annealing, RTA has a greater effect on the NO2-sensing properties of WO3 thin films.

Research on the photoluminescence of spectral broadening by rapid thermal annealing on InAs/GaAs quantum dots

Photoluminescence (PL) test was conducted to investigate the effect of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on the opticalperformance of self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) at the temperatures of 16 and 300 K. It was found that after RTAtreatment, the PL spectrum of the QDs sample had a large blue-shift and significantly broadened at 300 K. Compared with theas-grown InAs QDs sample, the PL spectral width has increased by 44.68 meV in the InAs QDs sample RTA-treated at800 ℃. The excitation power-dependent PL measurements showed that the broadening of the PL peaks of the RTA-treatedInAs QDs should be related to the emission of the ground state (GS) of different-sized InAs QDs, the InAs wetting layer (WL)and the In0.15Ga0.85As strain reduction layer (SRL) in the epitaxial InAs/GaAs layers.

Effects of rapid thermal annealing on the morphology and optical property of ultrathin InSb film deposited on SiO_2/Si substrate

Ultrathin InSb films on SiO2/Si substrates are prepared by radio frequency（RF） magnetron sputtering and rapid thermal annealing（RTA） at 300,400,and 500℃,respectively.X-ray diffraction（XRD） indicates that InSb film treated by RTA at 500℃,which is higher than its melting temperature（about 485℃）,shows a monocrystalline-like feature.A high-resolution transmission electron microscopy（HRTEM） micrograph shows that melt recrystallization of InSb film on SiO2/Si（111） substrate is along the（111） planes.The transmittances of InSb films decrease and the optical band gaps redshift from 0.24 eV to 0.19 eV with annealing temperature increasing from 300℃ to 500℃,which is indicated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FTIR） measurement.The observed changes demonstrate that RTA is a viable technique for improving characteristics of InSb films,especially the melt-recrystallized film treated by RTA at 500℃.

Proton Irradiation and Thermal Annealing of GaAs Solar Cells

The investigation on proton irradiation and thermal annealing of AlGaAs/GaAs solar cells has been reported.The energy of the proton irradiation is 325keV and the fluences are ranging from 5×10 10 to 1×10 13 cm -2 .It is demonstrated that the irradiation-induced degradation in the photovoltaic performance of the solar cells exists mainly in the short circuit current and the irradiation damage can be partly recovered by low temperature annealing at 200℃.In addition,it is found that the borosilicate cover glass has an obvious protection effect against the proton irradiation.

Charge storage characteristics of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon film prepared by rapid thermal annealing

The early stages of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon （nc-Si：H） films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition were characterized by atomic force microscopy. To increase the density of nanocrystals in the nc-Si：H films, the films were annealed by rapid thermal annealing （RTA） at different temperatures and then analysed by Raman spectroscopy. It was found that the recrystallization process of the film was optimal at around 1000℃. The effects of different RTA conditions on charge storage were characterized by capacitance-voltage measurement. Experimental results show that nc-Si：H films obtained by RTA have good charge storage characteristics for nonvolatile memory.

Fabrication of VO_2 thin film by rapid thermal annealing in oxygen atmosphere and its metal–insulator phase transition properties

Vanadium dioxide thin films have been fabricated through sputtering vanadium thin films and rapid thermal annealing in oxygen. The microstructure and the metal-insulator transition properties of the vanadium dioxide thin films were inves- tigated by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and a spectrometer. It is found that the preferred orientation of the vanadium dioxide changes from （111） to （011 ） with increasing thickness of the vanadium thin film after rapid thermal annealing. The vanadium dioxide thin films exhibit an obvious metal-insulator transition with increasing temperature, and the phase transition temperature decreases as the film thickness increases. The transition shows hysteretic behaviors, and the hysteresis width decreases as the film thickness increases due to the higher concentration carriers resulted from the uncompleted lattice. The fabrication of vanadium dioxide thin films with higher concentration carriers will facilitate the nature study of the metal-insulator transition.

Effects of high temperature rapid thermal annealing on Ge films grown on Si(001) substrate

Tensile strain, crystal quality, and surface morphology of 500 nm thick Ge films were improved after rapid thermal annealing at 900 ℃ for a short period （〈 20 s）. The films were grown on Si（001） substrates by ultra-high vacuum chemical vapor deposition. These improvements are attributed to relaxation and defect annihilation in the Ge films. However, after prolonged （〉 20 s） rapid thermal annealing, tensile strain and crystal quality degenerated. This phenomenon results from intensive Si-Ge mixing at high temperature.

Design and fabrication of GeAsSeS chalcogenide waveguides with thermal annealing

We reported a chalcogenide glass-based rib waveguide fabricated using photolithography and dry etching method. A commercial software(COMSOL Multiphysics) was used to optimize the waveguide structure and the distribution of the fundamental modes in the waveguide based on the complete vector finite component. We further employed thermal annealing to optimize the surface and sidewalls of the rib waveguides. It was found that the optimal annealing temperature for Ge As Se S films is 220℃, and the roughness of the films could be significantly reduced by annealing. The zero-dispersion wavelength(ZDW) could be shifted to a short wavelength around ~2.1 μm via waveguide structural optimization, which promotes supercontinuum generation with a short wavelength pump laser source. The insertion loss of the waveguides with cross-sectional areas of 4.0 μm×3.5 μm and 6.0 μm×3.5 μm was measured using lens fiber and the cut-back method. The propagation loss of the 220℃ annealed waveguides could be as low as 1.9 d B/cm at 1550 nm.

Characterization of low-resistance ohmic contacts to heavily carbon-doped n-type InGaAsBi films treated by rapid thermal annealing

Carbon-doped In Ga As Bi films on In P:Fe(100)substrates have been grown by gas source molecular beam epitaxy(GSMBE).The electrical properties and non-alloyed Ti/Pt/Au contact resistance of n-type carbon-doped In Ga As Bi films were characterized by Van der Pauw-Hall measurement and transmission line method(TLM)with and without rapid thermal annealing(RTA).It was found that the specific contact resistance decreases gradually with the increase of carrier concentration.The electron concentration exhibits a sharp increase,and the specific contact resistance shows a noticeable reduction after RTA.With RTA,the In Ga As Bi film grown under CBr4 supply pressure of 0.18 Torr exhibited a high electron concentration of 1.6×10^(21) cm^(-3) and achieved an ultra-low specific contact resistance of 1×10^(-8)Ω·cm^(2),revealing that contact resistance depends greatly on the tunneling effect.

Performance improvement of CdS/Cu(In,Ga)Se_2 solar cells after rapid thermal annealing

In this paper, we investigated the effect of rapid thermal annealing （RTA） on solar cell performance. An opto-electric conversion efficiency of 11.75% （Voc = 0.64 V, Jsc = 25.88 mA/cm2, FF=72.08%） was obtained under AM 1.5G when the cell was annealed at 300℃ for 30 s. The annealed solar cell showed an average absolute efficiency 1.5% higher than that of the as-deposited one. For the microstructure analysis and the physical phase confirmation, X-ray diffraction （XRD）, Raman spectra, front surface reflection （FSR）, internal quantum efficiency （IQE）, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS） were respectively applied to distinguish the causes inducing the efficiency variation. All experimental results implied that the RTA eliminated recombination centers at the p-n junction, reduced the surface optical losses, enhanced the blue response of the CdS buffer layer, and improved the ohmic contact between Mo and Cu（In, Ga）Se2 （CIGS） layers. This leaded to the improved performance of CIGS solar cell.

Hardening of an ODS Ferritic Steel after Helium Implantation and Thermal Annealing

Specimens of an oxide dispersion strengthened（ODS） ferritic steel（15 Cr-4 Al-0.6 Zr-0.1 Ti） are implanted with multiple-energy He ions at room temperature to create a damage plateau of 0.4 dpa for the average（corresponding to an He concentration of about 7000 appm） from the near surface to a depth about 1 um. The specimen is subsequently thermally annealed at 800°C for 1 h in a vacuum so that simple defects can be formed in the as-implanted state that has undergone significant recombination, meanwhile helium bubbles at nano-scale are formed. Hardness of the specimens are tested with the nano-indentation technique. A hardening by 25% is observed. Microstructures of the specimen after irradiation/annealing are investigated with transmission electron microscopy. Helium bubbles are generally located at dislocations and grain boundaries. Using the dispersed barrier strength model, the strength factor of helium bubbles in the ODS ferritic steel is estimated to be between0.1 and 0.26, which is close to that of helium bubbles in austenitic steels.

Effects of Thermal Annealing on the Solvent Additive P3HT PC61BM Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells

Effects of thermal annealing on the optical, electrical and structural properties of 3 vol% 1,8-diiodoctane added P3HT：PC61BM active layers are investigated, concerning the performance of the bulk heterojunction polymer so- lar cells by changing the heat temperature. The structure information of the active layer is analyzed by using the grazing incidence wide angle scattering diffraction combined with the optical microscope, light absorption, pho- toluminescence and the external quantum efficiency spectra. The relationship between the detail of morphology and the optical, electrical properties is investigated.

Comparison of Poly-Si Thin Films Prepared by Conventional Furnace Annealing and Pulsed Rapid Thermal Annealing

Amorphous silicon films prepared by PECVD on glass substrate were crystallized by conventional furnace annealing(FA) and rapid thermal annealing(RTA),respectively. From the Raman spectra and scanning electronic microscope(SEM),it found that the thin films made by RTA had smooth and perfect structure,while the thin films annealed by FA had a higher degree of structural disorder.

Effect of Metal Contact and Rapid Thermal Annealing on Electrical Characteristics of Graphene Matrix

Development of graphene field effect transistors （GFETs） faces a serious challenge of graphene interface to the dielectric material. A single layer of intrinsic graphene has an average sheet resistance of the order of 1-5 kΩ/□. The intrinsic nature of graphene leads to higher contact resistance yielding into the outstanding properties of the material. We design a graphene matrix with minimized sheet resistance of 0.185 kΩ/□ with Ag contacts. The developed matrices on silicon substrates provide a variety of transistor design options for subsequent fabrication. The graphene layer is developed over 400 nm nickel in such a way as to analyze hypersensitive electrical properties of the interface for exfoliation. This work identifies potential of the design in the applicability of few-layer GFETs with less process steps with the help of analyzing the effect of metal contact and post-process anneMing on its electrical fabrication.

A Novel Process for SiGe Core-Shell JAM Transistors Fabrication and Thermal Annealing Effect on Its Electrical Performance

In this study,we fabricate Si/SiGe core-shell Junctionless accumulation mode(JAM)FinFET devices through a rapid and novel process with four main steps,i.e.e-beam lithography definition,sputter deposition,alloy combination annealing,and chemical solution etching.The height of Si core is 30 nm and the thickness of Si/SiGe core-shell is about 2 nm.After finishing the fabrication of devices,we widely studied the electrical characteristics of poly Si/SiGe core-shell JAM FinFET transistors from a view of different Lg and Wch.A poly-Si/SiGe core-shell JAMFETs was successfully demonstrated and it also exhibits a superior subthreshold swing of 81mV/dec and high on/off ratio>10^5 when annealing for 1hr at 600℃.The thermal diffusion process condition for this study are 1hr at 600℃ and 6hr at 700℃ for comparison.The annealing condition at 700oC for 6 hours shows undesired electrical characteristics against the other.Results suggests that from over thermal budget causes a plenty of Ge to precipitate against to form SiGe thin film.Annealing JAMFETs at low temperature shows outstanding Subthreshold swing and better swing condition when compared to its counterpart i.e.at higher temperature.This new process can still fabricate a comparable performance to classical planar FinFET in driving current.

Femtosecond laser ultrafast photothermal exsolution

Exsolution,as an effective approach to constructing particle-decorated interfaces,is still challenging to yield interfacial films rather than isolated particles.Inspired by in vivo near-infrared laser photothermal therapy,using 3 mol%Y_(2)O_(3)stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals(3Y-TZP)as host oxide matrix and iron-oxide(Fe3O4/γ-Fe_(2)O_(3)/α-Fe_(2)O_(3))materials as photothermal modulator and exsolution resource,femtosecond laser ultrafast exsolution approach is presented enabling to conquer this challenge.The key is to trigger photothermal annealing behavior via femtosecond laser ablation to initialize phase transition from monoclinic zirconia(m-ZrO_(2))to tetragonal zirconia(t-ZrO_(2))and induce t-ZrO_(2)columnar crystal growth.Fe-ions rapidly segregate along grain boundaries and diffuse towards the outmost surface,and become‘frozen’,highlighting the potential to use photothermal materials and ultrafast heating/quenching behaviors of femtosecond laser ablation for interfacial exsolution.Triggering interfacial iron-oxide coloring exsolution is composition and concentration dependent.Photothermal materials themselves and corresponding photothermal transition capacity play a crucial role,initializing at 2 wt%,3 wt%,and 5 wt%for Fe3O4/γ-Fe_(2)O_(3)/α-Fe_(2)O_(3)doped 3Y-TZP samples.Due to different photothermal effects,exsolution states of ablated 5 wt%Fe_(3)O_(4)/γ-Fe_(2)O_(3)/α-Fe_(2)O_(3)-doped 3Y-TZP samples are totally different,with whole coverage,exhaustion(ablated away)and partial exsolution(rich in the grain boundaries in subsurface),respectively.Femtosecond laser ultrafast photothermal exsolution is uniquely featured by up to now the deepest microscale(10μm from 5 wt%-Fe_(3)O_(4)-3Y-TZP sample)Fe-elemental deficient layer for exsolution and the whole coverage of exsolved materials rather than the formation of isolated exsolved particles by other methods.It is believed that this novel exsolution method may pave a good way to modulate interfacial properties for extensive applications in the fields of biology,optics/photonics,energy,catalysis,environment,etc.