US 5,346,581 AGranted

Method of making a compound semiconductor device

AssigneeAT&T Bell Laboratories

InventorWon-Tien Tsang

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Abstract

In a preferred embodiment, the disclosed method of making a compound semiconductor (e.g., InP, GaAs) device comprises etching of a semiconductor body by exposure of the body to a chemical beam or beams that comprise an etching medium (e.g., PCl.sub.3, AsCl.sub.3) and a precursor chemical (e.g., trimethylindium, trimethylgallium), followed by chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) growth of semiconductor material on the etched surface without exposure of the semiconductor body to the ambient atmosphere. Presence of the precursor chemical in the etching beam can result in significantly improved surface morphology, with attendant high quality re-growth. Multiple etching/growth sequences are facilitated by the almost instantaneous (e.g., about 1s) switching between the etching and growth modes that is possible in a reactor according to the invention.

Claims10

Dependent claims

In a method of making a semiconductor device comprising

a) providing a semiconductor body that comprises III/V semiconductor material;
b) removing at least a portion of said III/V semiconductor material by a process that comprises contacting at least a part of said III/V semiconductor material with a gaseous etching medium such that an etched semiconductor surface results;
and
the improvement comprising the method further comprises
c) carrying out step b) in a reactor chamber with less than 10.sup.-2 Torr background pressure, the reactor chamber comprising means adapted for simultaneously exposing said III/V semiconductor material to a beam or beams of said gaseous etching medium and a III/V semiconductor precursor chemical, and the III/V semiconductor material is exposed, during at least a part of the removing step, to a beam or beams of said gaseous etching medium and the III/V semiconductor precursor chemical.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.