MBE Growth of HgCdTe on Large-Area Si and CdZnTe Wafers for SWIR, MWIR and LWIR Detection

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials Vol. 37; no. 9; pp. 1274 - 1282
• Main Authors: Reddy, M., Peterson, J.M., Lofgreen, D.D., Franklin, J.A., Vang, T., Smith, E.P.G., Wehner, J.G.A., Kasai, I., Bangs, J.W., Johnson, S.M.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01-09-2008; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Electronics; Electronics and Microelectronics; Exact sciences and technology; Instrumentation; Materials; Materials Science; Mercury cadmium telluride epitaxy; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Molecular beam epitaxy; Molecular, atomic, ion, and chemical beam epitaxy; Optical and Electronic Materials; Optoelectronic devices; Physics; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Semiconductor research; Silicon wafers; Solid State Physics; Structure and morphology; thickness; Substrates; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Thin film structure and morphology; MBE; HgCdTe macrodefects; CdZnTe; cutoff wavelength; Molecular beam epitaxy; HgCdTe on Si; HgCdTe; Growth rate; Zinc tellurides; Doping; Photodetectors; Thickness; II-VI semiconductors; Wafers; Cadmium tellurides; Growth mechanism; Infrared radiation; Mercury tellurides; Silicon; Arrays
• ISSN: 0361-5235; 1543-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-008-0428-1

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of HgCdTe on large-size Si (211) and CdZnTe (211)B substrates is critical to meet the demands of extremely uniform and highly functional third-generation infrared (IR) focal-panel arrays (FPAs). We have described here the importance of wafer maps of HgCdTe thickness, composition, and the macrodefects across the wafer not only to qualify material properties against design specifications but also to diagnose and classify the MBE-growth-related issues on large-area wafers. The paper presents HgCdTe growth with exceptionally uniform composition and thickness and record low macrodefect density on large Si wafers up to 6-in in diameter for the detection of short-wave (SW), mid-wave (MW), and long-wave (LW) IR radiation. We have also proposed a cost-effective approach to use the growth of HgCdTe on low-cost Si substrates to isolate the growth- and substrate-related problems that one occasionally comes across with the CdZnTe substrates and tune the growth parameters such as growth rate, cutoff wavelength (
λ
cutoff
) and doping parameters before proceeding with the growth on costly large-area CdZnTe substrates. In this way, we demonstrated HgCdTe growth on large CdZnTe substrates of size 7 cm × 7 cm with excellent uniformity and low macrodefect density.