Dielectric Coating Thermal Stabilization During GaAs-Based Laser Fabrication for Improved Device Yield

The quality and yield of GaAs-based ridge waveguide devices fabricated at MIT Lincoln Laboratory were negatively impacted by the random lot-to-lot appearance of blisters in the front-side contact metal. The blisters signaled compromised adhesion between the front-side contact metal, underlying SiO2 dielectric coating, and semiconductor surface. A thermal-anneal procedure developed for the fabrication of GaAs slab coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) ridge waveguide devices stabilizes the SiO2 dielectric coating by means of outgassing and stress reduction. This process eliminates a primary source of adhesion loss, as well as blister generation, and thereby significantly improves device yield. Stoney’s equation was used to analyze stress-induced bow in device wafers fabricated using this stabilization procedure. This analysis suggests that changes in wafer bow contribute to the incidence of metal blisters in SCOW devices.