Submicrometer gate fabrication of GaAs MESFET by plasma etching
Abstract
Dry etching is employed in the direct fabrication of the main part of semiconductor devices. A submicrometer Schottky-barrier gate is constructed for GaAs MESFET's. The gate has a double-metal-layer configuration. The Au top metal layer is first delineated by ion milling with monitoring equipment, i.e., ion microanalyzer. The metal layer in contact with the GaAs substrate is chemically etched in CF4 gas plasma. Controlled side etching of the Mo metal produces the submicrometer gate, leaving a wider top metal layer of Au. The amount of side etching deviates less than 0.05 micrometer and the gate length is reduced to 0.1 micrometer. No appreciable damage to the GaAs substrate is found as a result of plasma etching. Half-micrometer gate GaAs MESFET's fabricated by this dry etching technique achieved high-gain and low-noise performance in the X-band.
- Publication:
-
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
- Pub Date:
- October 1978
- DOI:
- 10.1109/T-ED.1978.19254
- Bibcode:
- 1978ITED...25.1213T
- Keywords:
-
- Etching;
- Fabrication;
- Field Effect Transistors;
- Gallium Arsenides;
- Plasma Interactions;
- Schottky Diodes;
- Gates (Circuits);
- High Gain;
- Ion Impact;
- Low Noise;
- Metal Surfaces;
- Molybdenum;
- Production Engineering;
- Superhigh Frequencies;
- Surface Reactions;
- Volt-Ampere Characteristics;
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering