Ohmic contact formation for inkjet-printed nanoparticle copper inks on highly doped GaAs
Open Access
- 12 March 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Nanotechnology
- Vol. 32 (22), 225205
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/abe902
Abstract
GaAs compound-based electronics attracted significant interest due to unique properties of GaAs like high electron mobility, high saturated electron velocity and low sensitivity to heat. However, GaAs compound-based electronics demand a significant decrease in their manufacturing costs to be a good competitor in the commercial markets. In this context, copper-based nanoparticle (NP) inks represent one of the most cost-effective metal inks as a proper candidate to be deposited as contact grids on GaAs. In addition, Inkjet-printing, as a low-cost back-end of the line process, is a flexible manufacturing method to deposit copper NP ink on GaAs. These printed copper NP structures need to be uncapped and fused via a sintering method in order to become conductive and form an ohmic contact with low contact resistivity. The main challenge for uncapping a copper-based NP ink is its rapid oxidation potential. Laser sintering, as a fast uncapping method for NPs, reduces the oxidation of uncapped copper. The critical point to combine these two well-known industrial methods of inkjet printing and laser sintering is to adjust the printing features and laser sintering power in a way that as much copper as possible is uncapped resulting in minimum contact resistivity and high conductivity. In this research, copper ink contact grids were deposited on n-doped GaAs by inkjet-printing. The printed copper ink was converted to a copper grid via applying the optimized settings of a picosecond laser. As a result, an ohmic copper on GaAs contact with a low contact resistivity (8 mΩ cm2) was realized successfully.Keywords
Funding Information
- European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement n° 727497)
This publication has 42 references indexed in Scilit:
- Sintering Behavior of Copper NanoparticlesBulletin of the Korean Chemical Society, 2011
- Effect of Carboxylic Acid on Sintering of Inkjet-Printed Copper Nanoparticulate FilmsACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2011
- Electrical Sintering of Silver Nanoparticle Ink Studied by In-Situ TEM ProbingPLOS ONE, 2011
- Fabrication of an inkjet-printed seed pattern with silver nanoparticulate ink on a textured silicon solar cell waferJournal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 2010
- Printed electronics: the challenges involved in printing devices, interconnects, and contacts based on inorganic materialsJournal of Materials Chemistry, 2010
- Effect of thickness on the structural, electrical and optical properties of ZnO filmsMaterials Research Bulletin, 2007
- Size matters: why nanomaterials are differentChemical Society Reviews, 2006
- Investigation of Cu-Ge/Gaas Metal-Semiconductor Interfaces for Low Resistance Ohmic ContactsMRS Proceedings, 1996
- Ohmic contacts to n-type GaAsJournal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, 1985
- Ohmic contacts for GaAs devicesSolid-State Electronics, 1967