Patent Application
20150097290
This disclosure relates generally to semiconductor structures and manufacturing methods and more particularly to bridge structures for monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) fabrication.
As is known in the art, it is frequently desirable to fabricate, and electrically interconnect, both passive and active microwave components on a common substrate. Such arrangement is commonly referred to as a monolithic microwave integrated circuit. Typically the components are electrically interconnected with microstrip or coplanar waveguide transmission lines. The microstrip transmission line include strip conductor disposed on one surface of the structure and separated from a ground plane conductor under the strip conductor and separated from the strip conductor by a substrate. The coplanar waveguide transmission line also include a strip conductor; however the ground plane conductor is placed in the same plane as the as the strip conductor. More particularly, the strip conductor is disposed on a surface on a substrate between a pair of adjacent ground plane conductors also disposed on the same surface of the substrate. The active devices are typically, for example, heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), field effect transistors (FETs), bipolar devices or PIN diodes. A common substrate material used is silicon carbide with gallium nitride and aluminum gallium nitride epitaxial layers grown on it. Such substrate material is suitable for the transmission line circuitry, the support of passive devices, such as capacitors, and also for formation of single crystal epitaxial layers used to form the active semiconductor region for the HBTs and the FETs.
As is also known in the art, air-bridges are used in these MMICs. For example, many active devices are formed with inter-digitated electrodes. For example, FETs (or bipolar transistors) adapted to operate at high frequencies are sometimes formed with finger shaped gate electrodes (or base electrodes) and finger shaped drain electrodes (or collector electrodes). The finger shaped electrodes are disposed in an inter-digitated relationship over a surface of a semiconductor body. Source electrodes (or emitter electrodes) are disposed over the surface and are positioned between a pair of the gate electrodes (or base electrodes). The gate electrodes (or base electrodes) are electrically connected, at proximal ends thereof, to a bus disposed on the surface of the semiconductor. Likewise, the drain electrodes (or collector electrodes) are electrically connected, at proximal ends thereof, to a bus disposed on the surface of the semiconductor body. The source electrodes are typically connected using air bridging conductors, sometimes referred to as air-bridges, which have ends connected to a pair of the source electrodes and which are elevated over (suspended in air) the surface of the substrate to thereby span over gate and drain electrodes. The latter technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,888, issued Jun. 26, 1984 and entitled “Radio Frequency Network Having Plural Electrically Interconnected Field Effect Transistor Cells”.
One metal structure used to form theses air-bridges uses evaporated gold as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,450, inventors Liles et al, issued Jul. 8, 1997, and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention.
In the case of coplanar waveguide, a metal conductor is used to connect the pair of ground plane conductors on either side of the strip conductor, and a portion of the strip conductor is formed as an air-bridge structure over the metal conductor. As noted above, coplanar waveguide transmission lines include a strip conductor and the pair of ground plane conductors is on either side of the strip conductor. Thus, the strip conductor is between a pair of adjacent, coplanar, ground plane conductors. In many applications it is necessary to connect the pair of adjacent ground plane conductors. For this purpose, as noted above, a metal conductor is used to connect the pair of ground plane conductors on either side of the strip conductor, and a portion of the strip conductor is formed as an air-bridge structure over the metal conductor. These strip conductor air-bridges formed with existing technology have proven inadequate in many current, very high-power gallium-nitride MMICs.
In accordance with the present disclosure, a structure is provided having: a first electrical conductor disposed on a surface of the structure; a second electrical conductor disposed on the surface of the structure; and a bridging conductor connected between the first electrical conductor and the second electrical conductor and having portions over the surface of the structure. The bridging conductor includes: an electrically conductive layer; a barrier metal layer on the conductive metal layer; and a refractory metal layer on the barrier metal layer.
In one embodiment, the bridging conductor includes: a second refractory metal layer to provide a pair of refractory metal layers; and a second bather metal layer to provide a pair of barrier metal layers. Each one of the barrier metal layers is on an opposite one of a pair of surfaces of the metal layer. The pair of refractory metal layers is on a corresponding one of the pair of barrier metal layers.
In one embodiment, the bridging conductor includes: a second barrier layer to provide a pair of barrier layers; and each one of the barrier metal layers is on an opposite one of a pair of surfaces of the metal layer.
In one embodiment, the electrically conductive layer is gold.
In one embodiment, the bather layer is platinum.
In one embodiment, the barrier layer is platinum, or an inter-metallic compound of: platinum and titanium, or palladium and cobalt, or titanium nitride.
In one embodiment, the barrier layer is a diffusion barrier layer disposed to prevent the refractory metal in the refractory metal layer from diffusing into the electrically conductive layer.
In one embodiment, a structure is provided having: a first electrical conductor disposed on a surface of the structure; a second electrical conductor disposed on the surface of the structure; and a bridging conductor connected between the first electrical conductor and the second electrical conductor and having portions disposed over the surface of the semiconductor structure. The bridging conductor comprising a plurality of stacked, multi-metal layers, each one of the multi-metal layers, comprising: a refractory metal layer; an electrically conductive layer; and a barrier metal layer. The barrier metal layer is disposed on the electrically conductive layer. The refractory metal layer is disposed on the barrier metal layer.
In one embodiment, the bridging conductor includes a plurality of stacked, multi-metal layers, each one of the multi-metal layers having: an electrically conductive layer; and a pair of barrier metal layers, the electrically conductive layer being disposed between and in direct contact with the pair of barrier metal layers. A pair of refractory metal layers is included and the pair of refractory metal layers is disposed between the pair of barrier metal layers.
In one embodiment, the electrically conductive layer is disposed between and in direct contact with the pair of barrier metal layers.
The inventors have recognized that while the air-bridge structure as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,450 performs well under many conditions, the inventors of the subject patent application have recognized that restructuring and cracking of evaporated gold air-bridges occurs during pulsed operation of MMICs at high RF power levels. More particularly, the inventors of the subject patent application have discovered that structure in U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,450 comprised alternating layers of gold and a refractory metal to limit the size to which gold grains could grow. While the structure in U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,450 (which used titanium as the preferred refractory metal) had good performance at intermediate RF power levels, it is marginal at the RF power levels experienced, for example, in current large-periphery gallium nitride MMICs. The inventors of the subject patent application have discovered that current MMICs show restructuring of their air-bridges after several hundred hours, that some of the air-bridges eventually fail at these high RF power levels, that these failures are due to inter-diffusion of titanium and gold at high RF currents, and that the metal stack must be modified to prevent this potential failure.
More particularly, the inventors of the present patent application have discovered that a problem with the structure described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,450 was that if the temperature of part of an air-bridge reached 200° C., the titanium interlayer would diffuse into the gold increasing the metal resistance and destroying the layered structure allowing restructuring of the gold during pulsed operation. The result was distortion, and eventual failure of the air-bridge. The solution was to add a diffusion barrier layer to both sides of the titanium layers to prevent the titanium layers from diffusing into the gold on either side. The diffusion barrier layers may be, for example, a thin layer of platinum (which can be between 10 and 1000 Angstroms thick), or a platinum layer or an inter-metallic compound of platinum and titanium. Other metals can be substituted for platinum and titanium (e. g., palladium and cobalt). Further, the composite may be a single, heat-resistant metal (e. g., platinum could be used.) A layered structure may be used to stabilize thicker layers of other metals (e.g., copper which behaves similarly to gold could be used in this layered structure in place of gold).
Thus, several metals (for example Pt—Ti—Pt) in place of a single layer of Ti are used to extend the temperature range in which the complete stack, including the thick layers of gold, resists restructuring and thereby allows air-bridges in RF lines to be stable at substantially higher RF power levels with pulsed operation.
The details of one or more embodiments of the disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.
Referring now to
Referring now to
It should be appreciated that sequentially vapor-phase epitaxial deposited techniques could also be used as well as other layer forming techniques. First a layer 32 of nickel having a thickness of 50 angstroms is deposited followed by a layer 34 of a gold-germanium alloy having a thickness of 900 angstroms. Next a layer 36 of nickel having a thickness of 300 angstroms is deposited followed by a layer 38 of gold having a thickness of 3000 angstroms. Next a layer 40 of titanium having a thickness of 1000 angstroms is deposited followed by a layer 42 of platinum having a thickness of 1000 angstroms. Finally, completing the source electrode 22, a layer 44 of gold having a thickness of 8000 angstroms is deposited. It should be appreciated that the drain electrodes are fabricated in a like manner during the just described process using known techniques.
Having formed the electrodes, a layer 46 of silicon nitride (Si3N4) having a thickness of 2000 angstroms is deposited to provide passivation and a capacitance dielectric and to raise the transmission line from the epitaxial material. Next, a mask is laid over the structure 10 and portions of the layer 46 are etched away as required such that the surfaces beneath the layer 46 are exposed.
It should be appreciated that a layer of photoresist or like material is deposited under the bridging conductor 24 before a layer 48 is deposited to form the shape of the bridging conductor 24 and after the bridging conductor 24 is formed the layer of photoresist is etched away to provide the air gap 26.
The bridging conductor 24 is fabricated from a stack of multi-metal layers to reduce the restructuring of the bridging conductors. In embodiment shown, to form the bridging conductor 24, typical of the plurality of bridging conductors, a layer 48 of titanium having a thickness of 500 angstroms is deposited followed by a diffusion barrier layer 49 of platinum having a thickness of 250 angstroms, followed by a layer 50 of a conductive metal, here gold, having a thickness of 9000 angstroms (except for the last upper most layer where the thickeners is 12000 angstroms) followed by another layer 51 of platinum having a thickness of 250 angstroms. Thus, each of the multi-metal layers includes: a refractory metal layer; a diffusion barrier layer on the refractor metal layer; a conductive layer having a bottom surface on, and in direct contact, with the diffusion barrier layer; and a second diffusion barrier layer, on and in direct contact with, the upper surface of the conductive layer. Here, three such multi-metal layers in the stack. Disposed on the upper surface of the stack is another refractory metal layer.
Thus, a layer 52 of titanium having a thickness of 500 angstroms is deposited followed by a layer 53 of platinum having a thickness of 250 angstroms, followed by a layer 54 of gold having a thickness of 9000 angstroms. Next a layer 55 of platinum having a thickness of 250 angstroms is deposited followed by a layer 56 of titanium having a thickness of 500 angstroms is deposited followed by a layer 57 of platinum having a thickness of 250 angstroms followed by a layer 58 of gold having a thickness of 12000 angstroms. Next a layer 59 of platinum having a thickness of 250 angstroms is deposited followed by a layer 60 of titanium having a thickness of 500 angstroms is deposited. A glassivation layer 62 of, for example, silicon nitride (Si3N4) having a thickness of 1000 angstroms is deposited over the layer 60 of titanium and a mask (not shown) is laid over the structure 10 and portions of the layer 60 and the layer 62 are etched away such that the surfaces beneath the layer 60 are exposed to provide for wire bonding to the gold as required.
It should be appreciated that the number of alternating layers of titanium-platinum-gold-platinum may be changed as well as the thickness of each of the layers. In some applications, partial restructuring of the top layer may be permitted eliminating the need for the glassivation layer 62. For example, other refractory metals may be used. Further, the barrier layers may be platinum, or an inter-metallic compound of: platinum and titanium, or palladium and cobalt, for example, to prevent the refractory metal in the refractory metal layers from diffusing into the gold electrically conductive layer.
Referring now to
It should be noted that under the air bridges in the transmission lines the AlGaN layer is etched away although GaN is still present. This is part of the process of isolating the active (conducting) regions of the HEMT. The AlGaN is present only under the air bridges on the HEMT itself.
Referring to
It is noted that in both stacks, there is a diffusion barrier layer, for example platinum, on both surfaces of the gold layer and further that there is a diffusion barrier layer of, for example, platinum, between the refractory metal layer, for example titanium, and the gold layer.
A number of embodiments of the disclosure have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. For example, while the multi-metal layer structure has been described in connection with air-bridges it may be used in other bridges as where there is a solid dielectric under the bridge. Further, other barrier metal layers may be used such as, for example, or an inter-metallic compound of: platinum and titanium, or palladium and cobalt, or titanium nitride. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.
