Ultralow-Contact-Resistance Au-Free Ohmic Contacts With Low Annealing Temperature on AlGaN/GaN Heterostructures

We report on the electrical and microstructural characterization of Au-free Ti/Al/Ti/TiN contacts for AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. Ultra-low Au-free ohmic contact has been obtained with contact resistance and specific contact resistivity as low as 0.21 Ω · mm and 1.16 x 10-6Ω · cm2, respectively. The ohmic alloy temperature is reduced as low as 550 °C by pre-ohmic recess of the AlGaN barrier and optimization of the thickness of bottom Ti layer. We found that interfacial layer formation of AlN between the ohmic metal and AlGaN surface is crucial to realize a low contact resistance with reduced low annealing temperature by a combination of electrical I-V characterization and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy analysis. Furthermore, we suggest a hypothesis that the bottom Ti layer plays a catalytic role for the Al-N reaction with optimized thickness.