Contact resistance

About: Contact resistance is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 15262 publications have been published within this topic receiving 232144 citations. The topic is also known as: electrical contact resistance & ECR.

Four decades of research on thermal contact, gap, and joint resistance in microelectronics

Abstract: The Keynote Paper reviews and highlights over 40 years of research on solutions for steady-state and transient thermal constriction and spreading resistances, and thermomechanical models for contact, gap and joint resistances of joints formed by conforming rough surfaces, nonconforming smooth surfaces, and nonconforming rough surfaces. Microgap and macrogap thermal resistance and conductance models are reviewed, and important relations and correlation equations are presented. Contact microhardness, determined by Vickers indenters, are correlated and incorporated into the contact model for conforming rough surfaces. Microhardness parameters are correlated with Brinell hardness values. Elastoplastic contact models for joints formed by smooth sphere-smooth flat and conforming rough surfaces are presented. A simple thermomechanical model for microgaps occupied by oil, grease, grease filled with solid particles, and phase change materials such as paraffins is reviewed, and good agreement with recently published data is noted.

Low-resistance ohmic contacts to p-type GaN achieved by the oxidation of Ni/Au films

Abstract: A contact has been developed to achieve a low specific contact resistance to p-type GaN. The contact consisted of a bi-layer Ni/Au film deposited on p-type GaN followed by heat treatment in air to transform the metallic Ni into NiO along with an amorphous Ni–Ga–O phase and large Au grains. A specific contact resistance as low as 4.0×10−6 Ω cm2 was obtained at 500 °C. This low value was obtained by the optimization of Ni/Au film thickness and heat treatment temperatures. Below about 400 °C, Ni was not completely oxidized. On the other hand, at temperatures higher than about 600 °C, the specific contact resistance increased because the NiO detached from p-GaN and the amount of amorphous Ni–Ga–O phase formed was more than that of the sample annealed at 500 °C. The mechanism of obtaining low-resistance ohmic contacts for the oxidized Ni/Au films was explained with a model using energy band diagrams of the Au/p-NiO/p-GaN structure.

Molybdenum oxide MoOx: A versatile hole contact for silicon solar cells

Abstract: This letter examines the application of transparent MoOx (x < 3) films deposited by thermal evaporation directly onto crystalline silicon (c-Si) to create hole-conducting contacts for silicon solar cells. The carrier-selectivity of MoOx based contacts on both n- and p-type surfaces is evaluated via simultaneous consideration of the contact recombination parameter J0c and the contact resistivity ρc. Contacts made to p-type wafers and p+ diffused regions achieve optimum ρc values of 1 and 0.2 mΩ·cm2, respectively, and both result in a J0c of ∼200 fA/cm2. These values suggest that significant gains can be made over conventional hole contacts to p-type material. Similar MoOx contacts made to n-type silicon result in higher J0c and ρc with optimum values of ∼300 fA/cm2 and 30 mΩ·cm2 but still offer significant advantages over conventional approaches in terms of contact passivation, optical properties, and device fabrication.