III-V族化合物半導体装置の劣化

GaAsを中心とした

抄録

Degradation in devices of III-V compound semiconductors, especially of GaAs, is reviewed to give a whole scope on this complicated phenomenon.
Factors which affect the degradation are studied at the metallurgical interface, surface and bulk of the crystal. Nature of defects which cause the degradation and are in turn created is also studied.
Dynamics of defects is discussed on effects to reduce the activation energy to break the lattice, and on the energy release mechanism to the lattice. The idea of new Photo-Mechanical Effect, or Recombination Enhancement Effect of defect-formation, -motion, and -annealing is introduced, as a recently clarified mechanism.
Accelerated aging data of various devices at various temperatures are shown. There remain things to be done to improve the reliability of “recombination-based” devices which short-live compared with “transport” devices. Understanding of the fundamentals in the degradation processes is the key to the future improvements of these devices.