(Electronics and Photonics Division Award) Dielectrics for III-V Materials

Successful electronic device technologies require the ability to passivate semiconductor surfaces and to retain that passivation during subsequent processing and device operation.  In silicon this passivation is obtained through the use of silicon dioxide.  A similar approach in III-V semiconductors has not been as successful due to the relative instability of the native oxides in this system.  This has led to the investigation of a range of dielectrics with varying degrees of success.  In addition to the difficulty in obtaining a dielectric suitable in terms of stability and band alignment, III-V surfaces have proven to be difficult to sufficiently clean and thus often suffer from severe interfacial leakage.  Finally deposition methods compatible with IC fabrication processes must also be developed once the dielectric material itself has been chosen and optimized.  In spite of these challenges substantial progress has been made in the development of dielectrics for III-V device technology.  This talk will review the development of dielectrics on III-V surfaces with a particular focus on dielectrics for widebandgap materials.