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March 1997

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ELSXIER
Materials Letters 30 (1997) 255-263

MATERIALS LETTERS

Materials Update

MOCVD technology for semiconductors


Alan G. Thompson
EMCORE Corporation 394 Elizabeth Amme, Somenet. NJ 08873, USA

Received 26 July 1996; accepted

17 August 1996

Abstract
This article commences with a brief review of the MOCVD process as it applies to semiconductors. The various precursors used, including metalorganic compounds, hydride gases, and dopants are discussed, together with the basic deposition process. Typical MOCVD systems used for R&D and manufacturing are described, including the constraints imposed by safety and environmental requirements. Recent advances in the R&D arena, such as growth mechanisms, new metalorganic materials, heteroepitaxy, the use of alternative carrier gases, and reactor modeling are then covered. In the manufacturing arena, large scale reactors, cost of ownership (COO) models, and in situ controls are detailed. We conclude with a look at newer applications for materials prepared by MOCVD, including multi-junction solar cells, high brightness LEDs covering the visible spectrum, and laser diodes.
Kqvwords: MOCVD; Semiconductors

1. Introduction Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) is a form of CVD utilizing metalorganic compounds for one or more of the precursors. Alternative names include OM (OrganoMetallic) CVD, MOVPE (Vapor Phase Epitaxy), and OMVPE. All mean essentially the same, except epitaxy [l] is a special case of thin film deposition where the layer replicates the crystal structure of the substrate (although there are exceptions to this definition). Due to space limitations this Update will be restricted to the case of semiconductors, but many other materials have also been prepared by MOCVD. However, the fundamentals are similar, and the interested reader is referred to two important classes, metals for IC fabrication [2], and ferroelectrics for IC memory and optical applications [3]. In the IC industry, the CVD
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technique is widely used to deposit films of Si, dielectrics such as SiO, and Si,N,, and metals such as W, TIN, and intermetallic compounds. CVD has been used to deposit other semiconductors, but the development of MOCVD led to much improved uniformities and a wider variety of materials, enabling bandgap engineering [I] to become practical. Essentially all III-V and II-VI semiconductors and most of their alloys have been successfully grown using MOCVD, making this possibly the most versatile growth technique for compound semiconductors. The precursors used are discussed in the next section. Thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and gas and surface reactions all play a part in the deposition process. A cold wall reactor is typically used for MOCVD, with the precursors being delivered to the heated substrate by a carrier gas. Typical reactors for R&D and manufacturing will be covered next, along

Copyright

0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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Letters 30 (1997) 255-263

with safety and environmental concerns, since many of these materials are hazardous. The following section describes recent advances in research, development, and manufacturing. Lastly, applications for the materials prepared using MOCVD will be covered briefly, in order to give the reader a feel for the commercial possibilities.

ground for the following sections, we will give an overview of the MOCVD technique. 2. I. Metalorganic (MO) compounds

2. The MOCVD technique In this brief article we can only touch on the theory behind the MOCVD technique. For more complete discussions, there are several excellent review articles and books that go into depth on this complex topic [4-61. For a comparison with other growth techniques, see Ref. [l]. However, as back-

These are typically metal atoms with a number of alkyl radicals attached, with methyl, ethyl, and isopropyl being the most common for compound semiconductors. Table 1 shows some of the more widely used MOs and their key properties. There is a vast array of these compounds available, with some being used in large quantities by industry. For semiconductor applications, the volume is relatively small and they have to be highly purified, both of which contribute to the high cost (compared to an elemental metal of similar purity). Desirable properties include a reasonable vapor pressure at room temperature or

Table I The names and properties of some of the more commonly used metalorganic imnlies a widelv used material. For more details, see Refs. r4.71 Element Name Symbol

(MO) compounds

for III-V

and II-VI MOCVD.

Common

Vapor pressure (Torr at C) 9 at 20 50 at IO 125 at 20 300 at 25

Liquid or Solid

Comments

aluminum antimony arsenic

trimethylaluminum trimethylantimony tertiarybutylarsine trimethylarsenic diethylcadmium dimethylcadmium triethylgallium triisopropylgallium trimethylgallium ethyldimethylindium trimethylindium biscyclodipentadienyl iron

TMAl TMSb TBAs TMAs DECd DMCd TEGa TIPGa TMGa EDMIn TMIn CP, Fe Cp,Mg TBP DETe DEZn DMZn

L L L L L L L L L L s S common common see text high C

cadmium

I at30 28 at 20
3 at 20 I at25 65 at 0 2 at 20 2 at 20

gallium

indium

common doping InP Sp-dopant see text

iron magnesium phosphorus tellurium zinc

I at 20
0.1 at 35 250 at 20 7 at 20 12at20 120at0

biscyclodipentadienylmagnesium tertiarybutylphosphine diethyltelluride diethylzinc dimethylzinc

s
L L L L

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below, high purity, low cost, a low affinity for oxygen and water vapor, and low toxicity. Unfortunately, many of the MOs that meet the vapor pressure and purity needs best are also highly reactive with oxygen (some are pyrophoric). They are therefore contained in stainless steel bubblers, and great effort is made to avoid their contamination by air. Highly purified hydrogen (or an inert gas such as nitrogen) is bubbled through the liquid to transport the material into the reactor. A knowledge of the vapor pressure (at the bubbler temperature and pressure) and the carrier gas flow rate is sufficient to determine the transport rate. Equilibration of this rate is quite rapid for liquids, but solid materials (such as TMIn) take longer and may vary with time as the surface area changes. Various proprietary schemes are used to mitigate this effect, and putting two bubblers in series is quite effective. For further information on MO compounds, see Ref. [7]. 2.2. Hydride gases For the III-V materials, the trihydrides (ASH,, PH,, NH,) are typically used, in spite of the fact that they are extremely toxic (ASH, has a TLV, the highest safe level allowed, of 50 ppb), since they are relatively inexpensive and give high purity layers. Alternative materials are alkyl based, such as TBAs, and have now reached equivalent purity levels to the hydrides (although TBP is still not widely used due to possible oxygen contamination or affinity compared to PH,). The alkyl substitutes are much more expensive than the hydrides, but are also much less toxic, and have some other advantages. Increased production volumes will decrease the cost, but many users will not switch while the cost is high, a classic chicken and egg situation! Antimony based compounds are usually grown from an alkyl based material, since the Sb hydrides are very unstable. 2.3. Dopants Convenient dopants are available in the form of MOs in bubblers (for example, Cp,Mg), MOs diluted by a gas under pressure (DETe in hydrogen), or a gas (SiH, in hydrogen). The latter two cases are convenient since the concentration may be varied over a wide range by the gas supplier. In the former

case, the reactor gas panel has to adjust the concentration, typically with a dilution network. 2.4. Growth mechanism Simplistically, a typical MOCVD reaction is as follows, using GaAs prepared from TMGa and ASH, as an example: (CH,),Ga + ASH, = GaAs + 3CH,. (1)

In practice, the surface is intimately involved, and there are many steps between the precursors entering the reactor and GaAs growing on the heated substrate. The incoming materials partially decompose and are then adsorbed on the surface. Here they decompose further or are desorbed. The atoms and radicals move around on the surface with growth occurring at steps for smooth, two-dimensional layers, replicating the structure of the substrate. For a good review of current understanding of this process, see Refs. [5,6]. In Eq. (l), it looks like C could be incorporated easily, leading to p-type doping of the GaAs. This is indeed the case, but to avoid it, excess hydride can be supplied; the atomic H from the decomposing ASH, scavenges the CH, products from the surface. V/III ratios of 100 are typically employed for devices prepared with methyl based MOs, and ratios of 10,000 have been used for the III-nitrides. Although this technique leads to good optical properties, it is a substantial contributor to the cost of the epitaxial structure.

3. MOCVD

reactors

Problems common to all MOCVD reactors include large temperature gradients (which can result in convective loops), high gas flows (which can lead to turbulence rather than laminar flow), and the need to have good wafer temperature uniformity (for doping and compositional uniformity). Some precursors react with one another in the gas phase, creating particles and low deposition rates. This effect can sometimes be overcome by operating at low pressure (typically = 0.1 at), and although this results in additional system complexity, it has other beneficial effects and has become widely accepted, particularly for manufacturing. Keeping atmospheric constituents

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out of reactors is a perennial problem, especially if they have to be opened to atmosphere for frequent cleaning. Long purges and bakes can be used in R&D, while nitrogen filled glove boxes and high vacuum load locks are used for more advanced systems (see Ref. [4] for basic information on reactor requirements). The gas panel is the system which meters the reactants and delivers them to the reactor. Fig. 1 shows a simplified system for III-V materials. The hydrides are fed to an injection block through valves and mass flow controllers. The MOs are transported by bubbling a controlled flow of hydrogen through the bubblers (which are also controlled at a selected pressure, not shown in Fig. I), and fed to their own injection block. At each block a push flow is added and the combined flows are directed either to the reactor or a vent line. The absolute and differential pressures are all dynamically controlled, so that when switching of flows occurs there are no pressure transients which could upset the transition from one layer to the next. This is particularly important for quantum well based devices, which often require monatomically abrupt interfaces. A main carrier gas

flow is also directed to the reactor, with combination of all flows preferably taking place in the reactor. 3.1. Research scale reuctors These typically process a single wafer up to 3 I in diameter, and are used for research, development, and limited volume manufacturing of some devices such as lasers. Both vertical and horizontal geometries have been used (see Fig. 2). The horizontal is the most common, since many early systems were home-built, and this is the easiest to construct provided a good glass blower is available. The gases flow parallel to the wafer, from one side to the other. Reactant depletion effects result in a decreasing growth rate across the wafer, which can be mitigated by tilting the wafer, increasing the carrier gas flow, or rotating the wafer. The latter approach is the most complex. but has been the most successful at decreasing the longitudinal depletion effect. A lateral depletion effect becomes important for wider tubes, making scale-up of this geometry difficult. Since deposits occur on all heated surfaces, a quartz liner is used which has to be removed and cleaned fre-

H, In

Inject Block

To Reactor

I
Hydride Push c To Vent Line Alkyl Push & To Vent Line

TMGa

l-lo x CD =VALVE = MASS FLOW CONTROLLER

Main Shroud

Flow

Reactor

Fig. I, A simplified schematic for a III-V MOCVD gas system. showing how hydrides and alkyls are metered and fed into the reactor. Note particularly the use of vent/run switching and pressure balancinp.

A.G. Thompson /Materials


r Process Wafer

Letters 30 (1997) 255-263

259

Exhaust

L 4

Susceptor

Process Gases

ih
(b)

Wafer

Susceptor

planetary reactor is quite complex, relying on air bearing type levitation and rotation of wafer carriers, which need frequent and careful cleaning. A glove box is used for atmospheric isolation, which affects throughput adversely. It has given excellent uniformities for a variety of materials, but it is maintenance intensive. The RDR [lo] relies on a magnetic fluid sealed bearing to isolate the high speed rotation from the atmosphere, and this approach works well when implemented correctly. This system has also given excellent uniformities for many materials, and has a higher throughput than the planetary system (for a given capacity) thanks to a high vacuum loadlock and lower maintenance requirements. Maximum wafer capacities for these manufacturing systems range from a few to several tens of 2 1 wafers (or equivalent areas of larger wafers). 3.3. Safety and environmental concerns

Fig. 2. (a) Horizontal and (b) vertical MOCVD reactor geometries. Virtually all MOCVD systems are based on one of these two schemes. See text for explanation of gas flows.

quently. In the vertical geometry, the gases flow perpendicular to the wafer surface. It is more complex mechanically than the horizontal, since it is desirable to rotate the wafer to average out uneven heating effects. It is also difficult to scale up, because of worsening uniformity, and is subject to convective recirculation. The latter can be overcome by good reactor geometry and careful choice of flow conditions. A special case, where the substrate holder is rotated rapidly (the high speed rotating disk reactor, or RDR), successfully overcomes these disadvantages. The disk rotation pulls the incoming gases to the wafer surface, and providing the reactants are fed in uniformly across the inlet results in a uniform deposit over the entire disk surface. 3.2. Manufacturing scale reactors

As mentioned earlier, the hydride gases used in MOCVD are often highly toxic, and most of the metalorganics are pyrophoric. Hydrogen is typically used for a carrier gas. Therefore as much of an MOCVD system as possible should be constructed of stainless steel, and the system cabinets exhausted and fitted with gas detectors linked to the control system. The byproducts of the reaction include unreacted gases and solids, all of which must be efficiently trapped and safely disposed of. There are a variety of chemical and thermal techniques available, and which is used depends on the system operators preference, the material being run, and local safety codes. Today, a well engineered system emits no hazardous gases to the atmosphere at any time, while generating only a low volume of solids for hazardous waste disposal. This topic is reviewed in Ref. [l 11.

There are two main types of reactors used in MOCVD manufacturing, the pseudo-horizontal and the RDR. The former category encompasses all systems where the gases flow across the wafers with depletion, and includes the barrel [81 and planetary [9] geometries. The barrel reactor has been widely used for AlGaAs solar cell structures, but suffers from temperature and thickness uniformity problems that have never been successfully overcome. The

4. Recent advances

in MOCVD studies

- R&D

4. I. Growth mechanism

The explanation of how growth proceeds given above is oversimplified. Until recently, most of the mechanisms postulated have been inferred from indirect evidence, such as optical studies, mass spectrometry of the byproducts, and process behaviour

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A.G. Thompson / Materiuls Letters 30 C1997) 255-263

[4]. Kisker and co-workers [12] have made grazing incidence X-ray scattering measurements on GaAs wafers in a special MOCVD reactor using realistic growth conditions. They found that under some conditions, islands form initially that then merge together, giving layer by layer growth. At higher temperatures, growth occurs at steps (step-flow growth), and this is the typical case for most MOCVD processes. Reflectance difference spectroscopy performed on the same reactor was correlated with the X-ray measurements to yield additional information on the process, particularly the surface reconstruction ]131. 4.2. New metalorganic compounds

Much of the development work of MO compounds in the last decade has gone into increasing their purity and consistency, and commonly used MOs such as TMGa, TEGa, TMAI, and TMIn are now well established. Work has also gone into exploring other compounds, particularly for group V hydride replacement. As mentioned above, TBAs has now reached parity with ASH, so far as purity is concerned [14]. Other As compounds are either less pure or have too low a vapor pressure to be useful for mainstream MOCVD. There is a strong need for a P source to replace PH,; TBP is a leading candidate but apparently gives deep level impurities that adversely affect minority carrier devices such as LEDs and laser diodes. Whether this is an intrinsic property or not is the subject of current speculation. Other P compounds either have low vapor pressure or suffer from C or impurity incorporation. The search for an N compound to replace NH, in GaN growth and hopefully overcome the need for very high V/III ratios has been unsuccessful so far; TBN was expected to behave like TBAs does in GaAs growth, but has not yet lived up to expectations. The issues of cost and safety continue to drive MO producers research efforts. 4.3. Heteroepitaq The discovery [15] that very efficient and reliable blue LEDs could be fabricated from III-N material grown on highly mismatched substrates was a sur-

prise to many in the field. It has triggered extensive research into low temperature buffer layer growth and characterization. In the case of GaN, sapphire substrates are first cleaned in HZ at = 1 IOOC, and then a thin (few 10s of nm) buffer layer (of GaN or AlN) is grown at between 500 and 600C. This layer is almost amorphous, but becomes crystalline while the temperature is ramped up to = 1050C for the growth of the main device structure. The low temperature buffer layer thickness, growth conditions, and ramp time are all critical to the morphological and electrical properties of the upper layers. Current research is centered on elucidating the mechanisms involved through AFM and TEM measurements, and searching for compliant buffer layers for other materials. The long term hope is that many materials may be grown on the most convenient substrate (large, low cost, strong, conducting, etc.> if suitable buffer layers can be grown.

4.4. Alternatice

carrier gases

Hydrogen has been the carrier gas of choice for CVD since the earliest days for reasons of purity and its ability to clean heated reactor internals. Diffusing HZ through a palladium membrane results in a very pure gas, with particularly low levels of O2 and H,O. In MBE, UHV pumping and liquid nitrogen cooled shrouds are needed to achieve adequately low levels of these contaminants, but these are unnecessary for MOCVD. The advent of effective nitrogen purifiers some 5 years ago led some researchers to explore if hydrogen could be replaced by nitrogen in the MOCVD process, and this effort has met with success recently [ 161. Their goal was to improve safety, be able to use MOs that react with HZ, and to decrease the incorporation of H2 in the layers. Reactor conditions had to be modified to allow for the different physical properties of nitrogen compared to hydrogen (higher density and viscosity, lower thermal conductivity), but they were able to achieve results at least meeting those for an optimized hydrogen based process for GaAs, AlGaAs, InGaP, and InGaAIAs. The uniformity of the films was actually superior for their horizontal reactor. One can expect others to switch to nitrogen based on these promising results.

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4.5. Reactor modeling The modeling of fluid flow in CVD reactors has advanced steadily from the early days of trying to explain results obtained with experimental reactors. Today, more sophisticated models are being used to design reactors and predict optimum process conditions. In particular, the RDR is relatively straightforward to model compared to other geometries, and a group at Sandia has performed extensive calculations [ 171. Their work was recently successfully used to fine tune the design of two new large RDRs and establish the process conditions needed to replicate the results obtained in smaller systems [ 181. The group at MIT has modeled many different types of reactors and has recently published a good review of this topic [ 191. The next step, already under way, is to incorporate the chemistry and surface processes into the models. When successful, this would enable the researcher to predict the most appropriate precursors and process conditions for any given material.

5. Recent advances 5.1. Manufacturing

in MOCVD scale reactors

- manufacturing

In response to market demand and growing volumes of MOCVD based devices, larger capacity reactors have been developed and introduced in the last couple of years. The modeling of RDRs discussed above led to scaling predictions that have now been proven [ 181. The newest RDR system (Fig. 3) has a 42 cm diameter disk capable of holding 38 X 2 or 9 X 100 mm wafers, and is engineered for continuous operation with minimal maintenance. Up to ten growth runs may be made sequentially without human intervention. This system has the highest throughput of any commercial MOCVD system, and has already been placed in manufacturing in the US, Japan, and Europe. Hughes Spectrolab subsidiary, which produces advanced solar cells for space applications, has been running four such systems for over a year and will take delivery of three

Fig. 3. A photograph of a current commercially available system.

MOCVD

production

tool, the EMCORE

Enterprise

E400. This has the highest

throughput

of any

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A.G. Thompson / Materid:,

Lrttrrs 30 (I 997) 255-263

860 ,g5 5 P a, ? 3 820 800 780 840

0.6% variatm

0.6% variation .t r--o-

lished recently [20]. This model can be used to calculate system throughput, and to examine the contributions to product cost, optimize staffing levels and maintenance tasks, and to allocate production to the most appropriately sized tool. We expect increased use of COO models as production volumes grow.

760 740 I

.,

//' 1111

' 1116

/k..,,'i/ 1162 1167

1070

Run Number Fig. 4. Long term reproducibility of the wavelength from a complex VCESL structure grown by MOCVD using reflectivity for in situ calibration (data courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories).

more in 1996, making installation in the world. 5.2. COO models

this the largest

MOCVD

Cost of Ownwership models have become very important in the Silicon industry as a tool for predicting throughput and processing costs for a wide variety of equipment. The compound semiconductor industry is starting to follow suit, with the first pub-

For many years, high vacuum growth techniques such as MBE have enjoyed the advantage of using in situ diagnostic tools such as RHEED to determine substrate surface conditions and measure growth rates (albeit on stationary substrates). Now MOCVD has responded with a variety of optical techniques to perform diagnostics on the layers as they grow, and Aspnes has reviewed these recently [21]. Two of these techniques show promise as manufacturing tools to enhance reproducibility and minimize the number of calibration and test runs that have to be made before the full device structure is grown. They are optical retlectance and ellipsometry, and both have recently proven to work well under real growth conditions in multi-wafer reactors [22]. Accurate growth rates are obtained within the first 50 nm or so of layer growth, and also compositional information after suitable calibration constants have been mea-

DAR coating &FL T-contact Top Cell Tunnel Junction Middle Cell Tunnel Junction Bottom Cell

Voltage (V) The I-V curve shows an AM0 efficiency of 25.7%

II -

GeSub.

Metal-contact Fig. 5. (a) Structure of a monolithic triple-junction solar cell grown by MOCVD efficiency (data courtesy of Spectrolabs Inc., a Hughes Electronics subsidiary). on a Ge substrate, and (b) its I-V characteristics
and

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Letters 30 (IY97) 255-263

263

sured. Both may be used to either establish growth rates during buffer layer growth (this information is then used to set layer times), or direct control of layer thicknesses can be implemented for all but the thinnest layers. Using the reflectance technique on buffer layers, Sandia [22] was able to achieve a remarkable *0.3% reproducibility for a complex VCSEL structure over several weeks, as shown in Fig. 4. Widespread use of this technique can be expected for the manufacturing of difficult structures in particular.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank my colleagues at EMCORE Corporation, our customers, and others in the industry who have helped and educated me during the preparation of this article.

References
R.A. Stall and B. Kroll, Semiconductor Intern. (July 1994) 172. [2] A.V. Gelatos, A. Jain, R. Marsh and C.J. Mogab, Mater. Res. Sot. Bull. (August 1994) 49. [3] B. W. Wessels, Annu. Rev. Mater. Sci. 25 (1995) 525. [4] G.B. Stringfellow, Organometallic vapor-phase epitaxy (Academic Press, New York, 1989). [51 D.W. Kisker and T.F. Kuech, Handbook of crystal growth, Vol. 3A (Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, 1994) ch. 3. [6] G.B. Stringfellow, Handbook of crystal growth, Vol. 3B (Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, 1994) ch. 12. [7] A.C. Jones, P. OBrien, CVD of compound semiconductors (VCH, Weinheim, 1996). ls1 N. Tomesakai, M. Suzuki and J. Komeno, J. Electrochem. Sot. 140 (1993) 2432. [91 P.M. Frijlink, J. Crystal Growth 93 (1988) 207. [lOI G.S. Tompa, W.J. Kroll, C. Chern, H. Liu, P.A. Zawadzki, A. Gurary, A.G. Thompson, M. McKee and R.A. Stall, III-V Review 7 (1994) 12. llll Alan G. Thompson, Proc. Adv. Mater. 4 (1994) 181. l121 D.W. Kisker, G.B. Stephenson, J. Tersoff, P.H. Fuoss and S. Brennan, J. Crystal Growth 163 (1996) 54. 1131 I. Kamiya. L. Mantese, D.E. Aspnes, D.W. Kisker, P.H. Fuoss, G.B. Stephenson and S. Brennan, J. Crystal Growth 163 (1996) 67. t141 H.C. Chui, B.E. Hammons, N.E. Harff, J.A. Simmons and M.E. Sherwin. Appl. Phys. Lett. 68 (1996) 208. [I51 S. Nakamura, T. Mukai and M. Senoh, J. Appl. Phys. 76 (1994) 8189. (161 H. Hardtdegen, Electrochem. Sot. Proc. 96-2 (I 996) 49. Sot. 138 1171 W.G. Breiland and G.H. Evans, J. Electrochem. (1991) 1806. lt81 A.G. Thompson, R.A. Stall, P. Zawadzki and G.H. Evans, J. Electron, Mater. 25 (1996) 1487. [I91 D.I. Fotiadis, S. Kieda and K.F. Jensen, J. Crystal Growth 102 (1990) 441. BOI Alan G. Thompson, W. Kroll, M.A. McKee, R.A. Stall and P. Zawadzki, III-V Review 8 (1995) 14. t211 D.E. Aspnes, IEEE J. Select. Topics Quant. Elect, I (1995) 1054. 1221 Alan G. Thompson, R. Karlicek, E. Armour, W. Kroll, P. Zawadzki and R.A. Stall, III-V Review 9 (1995) 12.

[I] A.G. Thompson,

6. Applications MOCVD is increasingly being applied to devices whose volumes are growing rapidly. One such application is advanced multi-junction solar cells for satellites, which are grown on large Ge substrates. No other growth technique can come close to meeting the cell efficiency (Fig. 5), low manufacturing cost and high throughput of the MOCVD technique. In the LED arena, newer high brightness (HB) LEDs made from InGaAlP outshine earlier devices, and so are finding new applications in automobile stop lights, outdoor displays, and traffic lights. Here the user looks at the lifetime cost of the device, so a municipality is willing to pay much more up front for a traffic light that does not need annual bulb replacement and that uses less electricity. Bright III-nitride based LEDs are now available emitting in the blue and green, with applications in outdoor displays and traffic lights. Laser diodes have always been an important area for MOCVD, with long wavelength telecommunication devices being fabricated almost exclusively by MOCVD. Now MOCVD grown laser diodes for CD players have largely displaced those made by MBE for cost and performance reasons, while newer visible (red) devices made from InGaAlP are finding applications for advanced CD-ROM and DVD systems. These are only a few of the applications for MOCVD material, but bear in mind that there are many other optoelectronic and electronic applications also.

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