CMP Development of Gallium Nitride Material

Gallium Nitride is one of most important compound semiconductor materials in recent years. It is of particular interest due to its wider band gap energy (3.4eV), high electron saturation velocity (2.7x10(7)cm/s), high breakdown field (3.3MV/cm) and chemical inert properties. A lot of researches have been focused on its application in power and opto-electronic devices. So the research of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) of Gallium Nitride has started to gain more attention. The recent developments of CMP of Gallium Nitride (GaN) material have been reviewed in the paper. They include chemical mechanical polishing of GaN, Combination of Chemical Polishing and Ultraviolet light irradiation using platinum catalyst, GaN chemical mechanical polishing combined with UV light and several other methods of GaN planarization at present. GaN CMP mechanism has been reviewed and analyzed. At the end of this paper, the development trend of GaN CMP will be discussed.