Degradation of TiAlNiAu as ohmic contact metal for GaN HEMTs

Ti/Al/Ni/Au stack is widely used to form ohmic contact on GaN based semiconductor material. Long term thermal storage tests conducted to assess AlGaN/GaN HEMT technology have shown a dramatic degradation of this metal when stored more than 100 h at temperatures above 340 °C. The first evidence of degradation is the increase of resistance and the surface morphology evolution leading passivation film to crack. AES and EDS analyses have demonstrated that Ga out-diffusion and Au inter-diffusion are the root causes of this degradation. Cross sections outlined voids occurrence.