ELECTRICAL CONTACTS TO BETA-SILICON CARBIDE THIN-FILMS

Ohmic and rectifying electrical contacts to n- or p-type semiconducting beta -SiC thin films were developed and characterized. Upon annealing for 300s at 1523 K, Ni, Au-Ta, and Cr were ohmic on n-type material. TaSi//2, similarly heated to 1123 K, and as-deposited Al also showed ohmic character. TaSi//2 had the lowest room-temperature contact resistivity of 2. 0 multiplied by 10** minus **2 OMEGA -cm**2. For p-type beta -SiC, Al-TaSi//2 annealed for 1800s at 1473 K and Al annealed for 180s at 1150 K exhibited ohmic behavior. Al was the better of the two, having a room temperature contact resistivity of 3. 1 multiplied by 10** minus **2 OMEGA -cm**2. High-temperature measurements of Al and TaSi//2 contacts showed that these contacts are stable during electrical operation to at least 673 K for 8h in air. At this temperature the contact resistivity of TaSi//2 and Al on beta -SiC decreased by a factor of two and ten, respectively. Contacts of Au were shown to be rectifying on n-type beta -SiC with a barrier height of 1. 20V.