INVESTIGATION OF PLASMA ETCH INDUCED DAMAGE IN COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

We have investigated the electrical performance of mesa‐isolated GaAs pn‐junction diodes to determine the plasma‐induced damage effects from reactive ion and reactive ion beam etching (RIBE). A variety of plasma chemistries (SiCl4, BCl3, BCl3/Cl2, and Cl2) and ion energies ranging from 100 to 400 eV were studied. We have observed that many of the reactive ion etching BCl3/Cl2 plasmas and RIBE Cl2 plasmas yield diodes with low reverse‐bias currents that are comparable to the electrical characteristics of wet‐chemical‐etched devices. The reverse‐bias leakage currents are independent of surface morphology and sidewall profiles.