Homoepitaxial Growth on a 4H‐SiC C‐Face Substrate

Abstract

Homoepitaxial growth on a 4H-SiC carbon face (C-face) was investigated. The C-face showed a similar site-competition phenomenon to that seen on a 4H-SiC Si-face. This site-competition phenomenon was distinctly sensitive to growth pressure. The surface morphology of the C-face epitaxial layer was sensitive to surface imperfections on the substrate. The growth window of 4°off-axis, C-face substrates was shown to be wider than that of the corresponding Si-face. A specular surface morphology without a bunched step structure was obtained over a whole 2 inch C-face substrate with a vicinal off-angle of 0.5°.

Bulk and epitaxial growth of silicon carbide

“…Homoepitaxy of dislocation-free 4H-and 6H-SiC(0001) by using small (0.4 mm × 0.4 mm) mesa structures is also reported [210]. More recently, it was found that 4H-SiC without 3C-SiC inclusions can be grown by using nearly on-axis (about 0.3°off-axis) 4H-SiC( 000 1) [128,211]. Although the reasons for this success are unclear at present, the difference in the surface energy was suggested (this is also the reason why bulk 4H-SiC can be easily grown on a ( 000 1) seed by sublimation) [46].…”

Nitrogen doping of 3C-SiC thin films grown by CVD in a resistively heated horizontal hot-wall reactor

“…The dependence of k C on crystallographic orientation of the 4H-SiC layer was demonstrated by Kimoto, while Kojima et al [6] reported on the influence of reactor pressure on k C . In the analysis presented below we propose to consider k C as an adjustable parameter, dependent on growth conditions and to keep in mind that k N should remain close to 1.…”

“…For hexagonal polytypes (4H and 6H-SiC) this problem was (partially) solved basing on the sitecompetition principle, reported by Larkin et al [1]; since the nitrogen incorporates in the sites of carbon sublattice, the decrease of unintentional doping of the layer down to 10 14 cm À3 is possible by raising the supply of carbon-containing species. Since then, numerous studies reported the influence of the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth conditions on doping of layers grown on different crystalline faces of 4H-and 6H-SiC [2][3][4][5][6][7]. The experimental results, sometimes contradictory, were obtained on different types of CVD systems (horizontal/vertical/barrel, hot/ cold wall, etc.)…”

Study of triangular defects and inverted pyramids in 4H-SiC 4° off-cut (0001) Si face epilayers

“…In this regard, 41 off-cut 4H-SiC substrates have the disadvantage of having a relatively higher probability for nucleation on the terraced regions. Also, at low growth temperatures surface imperfections could easily suppress step-flow growth [14], thereby resulting in TD formation. Therefore, high growth temperatures help to minimize TDs that originate from surface imperfections.…”