Very-Low-Specific-Resistance Pd/Ag/Au/Ti/Au Alloyed Ohmic Contact to p GaN for High-Current Devices

We report on Pd/Ag/Au/Ti/Au alloyed metallic contact to pGaN. An 800 °C anneal for 1 min in flowing nitrogen ambient produces an excellent ohmic contact with a specific contact resistivity close to 1×10−6 Ω cm2 and with good stability under high current operation conditions. This high-temperature anneal forms an alloy between Ag,Au, and pGaN resulting in a highly p-doped region at the interface. Using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray diffractionanalysis, we confirm that the contact formation mechanism is the metal intermixing and alloying with the semiconductor