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3C-SiC epilayers grown on Si-face nominally on-axis 4H-SiC substrate are characterized with X-ray diffraction techniques. The aim was to investigate if these 3C-SiC epilayers were grown by single domain growth. The results show that all samples start by having several nucleation centers all over the substrate surface and the growth continues with two domain formations. As the growth proceeds one domain overtakes the growth and single domain crystal growth occurs. This single domain was further investigated and the results show that it seems to contain many sub-domains with same lattice constant but slightly tilted.

The electrical degradation of 4H–SiC PiN diodes has recently attracted much interest and is a critical material problem for high power applications. The degradation is caused by stacking faults observed as an increased forward voltage drop after forward injection operation. In this article we have combined electrical, optical, and structural techniques to study the formation and growth of the stacking faults causing degradation. We will show three different sources causing two different types of stacking fault properties.

The objective of this work was to study the effect of a liquid phase epitaxy buffer layer on the development of defects in sublimation grown epitaxial layers of 4H-SiC. The results were analyzed with the aid of optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, high-resolution X-ray diffraction and synchrotron white beam X-ray topography. A pronounced effect of the liquid phase epitaxy buffer layer on formation of dislocations and micropipes is observed in the sublimation epitaxy layers. It has been shown that during sublimation growth of epilayer with a thin liquid phase epitaxy buffer layer (0.1µm) defects may undergo transformation and stacking faults can be formed. Sublimation grown epilayers grown on a thick liquid phase epitaxy buffer layer (1µm) also showed a symmetrical distribution of misfit dislocations along the and [11¯00] directions. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

International audience; High quality double-position-boundaries free 3C-SiC epilayers have been successfully grown on on-axis (0001) 4H-SiC by chemical vapor deposition at optimized conditions as observed with optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The effect of the growth parameters, including temperature, C/Si ratio, ramp-up condition, Si/H-2 ratio, N-2 addition and pressure, on the quality of the grown layers is investigated. Different techniques, including microscopic and spectroscopic techniques, are used to characterize the epilayers. High resolution X-ray diffraction shows 2 theta-omega curve with full width at half maximum of only 16 arcsec for the (111) reflection detected from a 35 mu m thick 3C-SiC layer, showing the good structural quality of the layer. Reciprocal space maps confirm the absence of double-position-boundaries in a large depth of the layers. Low temperature photoluminescence measurement shows clear near-bandgap emission with sharp and single peaks, which further verifies the high quality of the epilayers. (C) 2014 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.

The growth of 3C-SiC on hexagonal polytype is addressed and a brief review is given for various growth techniques. The Chemical Vapor Deposition is shown as a suitable technique to grow single domain 3C epilayers on 4H-SiC substrate and a 12.5 µm thick layer is demonstrated; even thicker layers have been obtained. Various characterization techniques including optical microscopy, X-ray techniques and photoluminescence are compared for the evaluation of the crystal quality and purity of the layers.

Stress in epitaxial layers due to crystal lattice mismatch directly influences the growth, structure, and basic electrophysical parameters of epitaxial films and also to a large extent the degradation processes in semiconductor devices. In this letter, we present a theoretical model for calculating the induced lattice compression due to N doping and the critical thickness concerning formation of misfit dislocations in homoepitaxial 4H–SiC layers with different N-doping levels. For example: The model predicts that substrates with a N concentration of 3×1019 cm−3 induce misfit dislocations when the epilayer thickness reaches ∼10 μm. Also, the N-doping concentration in the 1×1018–1×1019 cm−3 range yields a strain that not will cause misfit dislocactions at the substrate and epilayer interface until an epilayer thickness of 200–300 μm is reached. Supporting evidence of the induced lattice compression due to N doping have been done by synchrotron white-beam x-ray topography on samples with different N-doping levels and are compared with the predicted results from the model.

Triangular structural defects are occasionally generated during the long-term operation of 4H-SiC pin diodes and degrade the forward characteristics of the diode. We have used synchrotron white beam x-ray topography, scanning electron microscopy, in situ cathodo luminescence, and transmission electron microscopy to characterize the structure and formation of these defects. It is shown that the defects are stacking faults on the (0001) basal planes, bound by partial dislocations with Burgers vectors 1/3〈1010〉 and 1/3〈0110〉. These partials are suggested to form by the dissociation of existing dislocations.

Homoepitaxial films of 4H-SiC(1120) and 8° off-axis 4H-SiC(0001) have been grown and characterized. The number of domains and the range of full-width half-maxima values of the x-ray rocking curves of the [1120]-oriented wafers were smaller than the analogous values acquired from the (0001) materials. Hydrogen etching of the former surface for 5 and 30 minutes reduced the RMS roughness from 0.52 nm to 0.48 nm and to 0.28 nm, respectively; the RMS roughness for a 30 μm (1120) film was 0.52 nm. Micropipes in the substrates did not thread beyond the film-substrate interface. The separation distance between stacking faults was determined to be 10 μm by transmission electron microscopy. Hall mobilities and carrier concentrations of 12,200 cm2/Vs and 3.1×1014 cm−3 and 800 cm2/Vs and 7.4×1014 cm−3 were measured at 100°K and 300°K, respectively. Photoluminescence indicated high purity. 4H-SiC(1120) PiN devices exhibited average blocking voltages to 1344 V and a minimum average forward voltage drop of 3.94 V.

Three possible situations of extended defect formation during sublimation growth of SiC have been investigated: a-plane growth, occurrence and effect of irregular growth interfaces, and development of elongated open volume morphological defects. While in the first case the most preferred defects are basal plane stacking faults (SFs), in other studied samples threading dislocations and high energy SFs have been revealed, these suggesting stress accumulated in the course of the growth process. Formation of morphological defects of the above character has been observed in the presence of micropipes and step flow growth mode on vicinal surfaces. Growth on atomically flat surfaces can eliminate this type of defects but the polytype uniformity is more difficult to maintain.

4H-SiC commercial wafers and sublimation grown epitaxial layers with a thickness of 100 μm have been studied concerning crystalline structure. The substrates and the epitaxial layers have been separately investigated by high-resolution x-ray diffraction and synchrotron white beam x-ray topography. The results show that the structural quality was improved in the epitaxial layers in the [1120] and [1100] directions, concerning domain distribution, lattice plane misorientation, mosaicity, and strain, compared with the substrates. Misoriented domains have merged together to form larger domains while the tilt between the domains was reduced, which resulted in nonsplitting in diffraction curves. If the misorientation in the substrate is large, we can only see a slight decrease in the misorientation in the epilayer. At some positions on the substrates block structures (mosaicity) were observed. ω-rocking curves showed smaller full width at half maximum values and more uniform and narrow peaks, while the curvat...