Patent ID: 7141498

Claim:
A method of forming an ohmic contact on a substrate comprised of a wide-band gap semiconductor material, the method comprising: depositing a transition metal group metal on the substrate; annealing the substrate at a high temperature to cause a solid state chemical reaction between the substrate and the deposited metal that forms a modified layer in the substrate having modified properties different than the substrate, and by-products comprised of a silicide and a nanocrystalline graphite layer; selectively etching the substrate to remove one or more of the by-products of the solid state chemical reaction from a surface of the substrate, wherein the selective etching of the substrate to remove the one or more of the by-products of the solid state chemical reaction further comprises removing only the silicide; and depositing a metal film comprised of another metal over the modified layer on the substrate to form the ohmic contact, wherein the modified layer permits formation of the ohmic contact without high temperature annealing after depositing the metal film.