Process for producing porous refractory metal layers embedded in semiconductor devices

Claim 1

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device comprising the steps of: providing a body of a III-V semiconductor material having a major surface; depositing a layer of tungsten by molecular beam epitaxy on said major surface of said semiconductor body to a thickness of approximately 10-to-20 nm under conditions such that apertures having a diameter of 10 to 20 nm extending substantially vertically through the thickness of said layer are formed spontaneously, without the use of a mask, during deposition of said layer. providing a layer of a semiconductor material over said layer of tungsten such that said layer of semiconductor material is epitaxially matched to the major surface of the body by means of lateral epitaxy; and providing electrical contacts to said body of III-V semiconductor material and said layer of semiconductor material.

Claim 2

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device comprising the steps of: providing a body of a III-V semiconductor material having a major surface; depositing a layer of tungsten by molecular beam epitaxy on said major surface of said semiconductor body to a thickness of approximately 10-to-20 nm under conditions such that apertures having a diameter of 10 to 20 nm extending substantially vertically through the thickness of said layer are formed spontaneously, without the use of a mask, during deposition of said layer. providing a layer of a semiconductor material over said layer of tungsten such that said layer of semiconductor material is epitaxially matched to the major surface of the body by means of lateral epitaxy; and providing electrical contacts to said body of III-V semiconductor material and said layer of semiconductor material.

Claim 5

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device comprising the steps of: providing a body of a III-V semiconductor material having a major surface; depositing a layer of tungsten by molecular beam epitaxy on said major surface of said semiconductor body to a thickness of approximately 10 to 20 nm under conditions such that apertures having a diameter of 10 to 20 nm extending substantially vertically through the thickness of said layer are formed spontaneously, without the use of a mask, during deposition of said layer; providing a layer of semiconductor material over said layer of tungsten such that said layer of semiconductor material is epitaxially matched to the major surface of the body by means of lateral epitaxy; providing electrical contacts to said body of III-V semiconductor material and said layer of semiconductor material; and wherein said layer of semiconductor material comprises alternating layers of wide and narrow energy gap semiconductor material.

Claim 6

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device comprising the steps of: providing a body of a III-V semiconductor material having a major surface; depositing a layer of tungsten by molecular beam epitaxy on said major surface of said semiconductor body to a thickness of approximately 10 to 20 nm under conditions such that apertures having a diameter of 10 to 20 nm extending substantially vertically through the thickness of said layer are formed spontaneously, without the use of a mask, during deposition of said layer; providing a layer of semiconductor material over said layer of tungsten such that said layer of semiconductor material is epitaxially matched to the major surface of the body by means of lateral epitaxy; providing electrical contacts to said body of III-V semiconductor material and said layer of semiconductor material; and wherein said layer of semiconductor material comprises alternating layers of wide and narrow energy gap semiconductor material.

Claim 9

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device comprising the steps of: providing a semiconductor body having a major surface, depositing a non-epitaxial layer of a conductive refractory material on said major surface to a thickness at which the layer is electrically-connected but contains apertures therethrough, said apertures being spontaneously formed during deposition without the use of a mask, forming a semiconductor layer over said layer of conductive refractory material to epitaxially match said semiconductor layer to the major surface of said semiconductor body via said apertures by a process of lateral epitaxy, and forming electrical contacts to said semiconductor body, to said semiconductor layer and to said layer of conductive refractory material.

Claim 10

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device comprising the steps of: providing a semiconductor body having a major surface, depositing a non-epitaxial layer of a conductive refractory material on said major surface to a thickness at which the layer is electrically-connected but contains apertures therethrough, said apertures being spontaneously formed during deposition without the use of a mask, forming a semiconductor layer over said layer of conductive refractory material to epitaxially match said semiconductor layer to the major surface of said semiconductor body via said apertures by a process of lateral epitaxy, and forming electrical contacts to said semiconductor body, to said semiconductor layer and to said layer of conductive refractory material.