Multistep chemical planarization for efficient fabrication of smooth GaN surfaces

Abstract

Gallium nitride (GaN) has attracted attention as a semiconductor material for energy-saving power devices. However, polishing methods with high-efficiency and accuracy have not been developed due to the mechanical hardness and chemical stability of GaN. We are developing a novel chemical planarization method which uses the surface of a catalyst plate as a reference surface to fabricate ultra-smooth GaN surfaces with high rate. We report the results of efficient planarization using two types of methods which have different processing mechanisms as the front-end and finishing processes respectively.