Method for roughening semiconductor surface

• US 20030181057A1
• Filed: 03/21/2002
• Published: 09/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nitride Semiconductors Co., Ltd., Shiro Sakai
• Original Assignee: Nitride Semiconductors Co., Ltd., Shiro Sakai
• Inventors: Lacroix, Yves, Sakai, Shiro
• Granted Patent: US 6,884,647 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 438/712
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/0337 characterised by the process involved to create the mask, e.g. lift-off masks, sidewalls, or to modify the mask, e.g. pre-treatment, post-treatment
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/3086 characterised by the process involved to create the mask, e.g. lift-off masks, sidewalls, or to modify the mask, e.g. pre-treatment, post-treatment
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/0095 Post-treatment of devices, e.g. annealing, recrystallisation or short-circuit elimination
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/22 Roughened surfaces, e.g. at the interface between epitaxial layers

Abstract

In order to provide a method for easily roughening a surface of a semiconductor constituting an LED, a first material 18 and a second material 20 having a property that they are nonuniformly mixed when thermally treated are deposited on a semiconductor 16, the structure is thermally treated, and etching is performed through reactive ion etching in which the etching rate with respect to the first material 18 is slower than the etching rates with respect to the second material 20 and to the semiconductor 16. During this process, a region 22 in which the first material 18 is the primary constituent functions as an etching mask, and a predetermined roughness can be easily formed on the surface of the semiconductor 16.

Claims

1. A method for roughening a surface of a semiconductor comprising the steps of:

depositing, on a surface of a semiconductor, a first material and a second material having a property that when thermally treated, the first and second materials are nonuniformly mixed;

thermally treating the semiconductor onto which the two materials are deposited; and

etching the surface of the semiconductor onto which the two materials are deposited through an etching method in which the etching rate of the first material is slower than the etching rates of the second material and of the material for the semiconductor.

2. A method for roughening a surface of a semiconductor according to claim 1, wherein the first and second materials are evaporated as layers onto the surface of the semiconductor through vacuum evaporation.

3. A method for roughening a surface of a semiconductor according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor is a gallium nitride semiconductor, the first material is Ni, the second material is Au, and the etching method is reactive ion etching.