Managing Basal Plane Dislocations in SiC: Perspective and Prospects

Conversion of basal plane dislocations (BPDs) to threading edge dislocations in 8 and 4{degree sign} offcut SiC material has been studied in order to eliminate the nucleation source of Shockley-type stacking faults in the active region of bipolar devices. Ex situ and in situ growth interrupts were used to convert BPDs in the 8{degree sign} material, where conversion rates up to 98% were achieved for in situ interrupts in epilayers with doping < 1x1016 cm-3. Complete spontaneous conversion of BPDs was found to be possible in 4{degree sign} offcut material after ~ 20 µm of epitaxial growth for both intentionally and unintentionally doped films.