Semiconductor device fabrication with disordering elements introduced into active region
AssigneeThe Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
InventorNick Holonyak, Jr.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Silicon or krypton is used as a disordering element to selectively disorder layers in a heterojunction III-V semiconductor.
Claims66
A method for converting a multilayer semiconductor structure, which comprises first active semiconductor regions interposed between second semiconductor barrier layers, into a disordered alloy of both said first and second semiconductors, said alloy exhibiting a higher energy gap than said first active semiconductor region;
- the method comprising introducing a disordering element into said multilayer structure, said disordering element being an element selected from the group consisting of silicon and krypton.
A method for integrating semiconductor devices into a monolithic structure, at least some of said devices being light emitting and including heterojunction multilayer structure, comprising the steps of:
- constructing a heterojunction light emitting semiconductor device which includes multiple layers of interspersed active and barrier semiconductor regions, said active regions being less than about 500 Angstroms in thickness;
- masking portions of said device;
- and
- introducing a disordering element into unmasked portions of said device to cause said active and barrier regions to compositionally disorder to a higher energy gap material than said active semiconductor regions, said disordering element comprising an element selected from the group consisting of silicon and krypton.
A method of making a semiconductor structure, comprising the steps of:
- forming a semiconductor structure which includes a first active semiconductor region disposed on a second semiconductor barrier layer, said region being sufficiently thin to exhibit quantum size effects;
- introducing a disordering element, selected from the group consisting of silicon and krypton, into said semiconductor structure to obtain a disordered alloy of both said first and second semiconductors, said alloy exhibiting a higher energy gap than said first active semiconductor region.
A method for integrating a semiconductor device into a monolithic structure, at least some of said device including heterojunction multilayer structures, comprising the steps of:
- constructing a heterojunction semiconductor device which includes first active semiconductor regions interposed between second semiconductor barrier layers;
- masking portions of said device;
- and
- introducing a disordering element, selected from the group consisting of silicon and krypton, into unmasked portions of said device to cause said active and barrier regions to compositionally disorder to a higher energy gap material than said active semiconductor regions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.