MOVPE growth of GaN on patterned 6-inch Si wafer

We demonstrate that thicker layers can be achieved in gallium nitride (GaN) epitaxy by using a patterned silicon (Si) substrate compared to a planar Si substrate. GaN films were grown by metalorganic vapour-phase epitaxy on 6-inch Si (111) substrates patterned with arrays of squares with various corner shapes, height and lateral dimensions. Stress spatial distributions in the GaN pattern units were mapped out using confocal Raman spectroscopy. It was found that the corner shapes have an effect on the uniformity of the stress distribution. Patterns with round corners were found to have more uniform stress distribution than those with sharp corners. The largest crack-free square size for a 1.5 mu m thick GaN film is 500 x 500 mu m(2).