Abstract
The development of high-performance, stable and laterally uniform contacts to compound semiconductors is ah essential step in the ongoing miniaturization of electronic and optoelectronic devices. In this overview, the potential contributions of the materials science community to this effort are discussed. It is argued that the most urgent needs are: experimental determination of M-A-B equilibrium phase diagrams where M is a metal and AB is the compound semiconductor (e.g.,GaAs, InP and CdTe); and comprehensive studies of the interrelationships between processing, interfacial microstructure and electrical properties of thin metal films on compound semiconductors. Application of advanced materials characterization techniques, such as heavy-ion Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and atomic resolution electron microscopy, that are especially well-suited to compound semiconductor studies promise to enhance our understanding of M/AB systems.
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Additional information
T. Sands received his Ph.D. in materials science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984. He is currently a member of technical staff with Bell Communications Research, Inc., in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and is a Visiting Industry Fellow at the Center for Advanced Materials at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the University of California in Berkeley, California. Dr. Sands is also a member of TMS.
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Sands, T. Contacts to Compound Semiconductors. JOM 38, 31–33 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03258577
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03258577