The epitaxial growth of SiC is limited by two main processes; homogeneous nucleation and surface mobility at high growth rates. We propose to investigate the growth of SiC using three different halo-hydrocarbons and two or three different chlorinated Si chemistries and also combine the most promising carbon and silicon chemistries. The goal from phase I is to suggest a suitable chemistry eliminating homogeneous nucleation and furthermore investigate the lower limits in temperature where significantly higher growth rates (> 20 micrometer/h) can be achieved without deteriorating the crystalline quality. Low temperature growth is believed to greatly reduce the impurities leeching out of the hot graphite susceptor and the quartz. Lower temperature processes giving impeccable crystalline quality are thus essential if high voltage (>10kV) power devices are to be made. Another goal of the phase I effort is to suggest a suitable reactor configuration for improved utilization of the proposed chemistry.
Benefit: Thick epitaxial layers of high purity and crystalline quality suitable for high voltage power devices. An epitaxial process with improved performance and lower cost of ownership. If the growth rate can be increased to what is believed possible (>200 micrometer/h) bulk growth at reasonable temoeratures can be attempted which opens up new possibilities that so far have only been dreamt about. For instance, 20 - 30 kV transistors and diodes can be processed right on a wafer using the wafer itself as the active layer (like they do in the Si industry). Semi insulating wafers can be grown with a purity and crystalline quality that exceeds that of the HTCVD. This is incredible important research with a tremendous impact on the SiC community.
Keywords: HCl additives, HCl additives, low growth temperatures, halo-hydrocarbons, high carrier lifetimes., new growth chamber design, chlorosilanes, high growth rates (>100 microns/h), ultra-high purity
