Study of AlN growth using AMEC Prismo HiT3 MOCVD reactor

Effect and mechanism of carrier gas velocity, V/III ratio, and carrier gas velocity match of group III to group V (MO VM) on AlN growth rate (GR) were investigated in depth by experiment and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation in Prismo HiT3 MOCVD platform. It is found that AlN growth rate increases with hydrogen flow rate at first, reaches saturation and then shows a monotonic decrease trend. The specific value of turning point depends on the equipment and process. At constant total flow rate of 160 slm, GR increases with MO VM by suppressing parasitic reaction, but uniformity show a deteriorate trend due to the occurrence of turbulence and loss of uniform boundary layer. High quality 4-mu m-thick AlN films with improved crystalline quality and atomic smooth surfaces were achieved on nano-patterned sapphire substrates with a growth rate of 0.82 um/hr. The full width at half maximum of the X-ray rocking curve was 162/305 arcsec for (002)/(102) planes with total dislocation density similar to 10(9) cm(-2).

Automated summary

The effect and mechanism of carrier gas velocity, V/III ratio, and carrier gas velocity match on the growth rate of AlN were investigated in this study. The results showed that the growth rate of AlN initially increased with hydrogen flow rate, reached saturation, and then decreased monotonically. The turning point value depended on the equipment and process. By increasing the MO VM, the growth rate of AlN could be improved, but the uniformity deteriorated due to turbulence and loss of uniform boundary layer. High quality AlN films were successfully grown on nano-patterned sapphire substrates with improved crystalline quality and atomic smooth surfaces.