Homoepitaxial Growth of 4H-SiC Using a Chlorosilane Silicon Precursor

Epitaxial growth of SiC films was performed on 4H SiC n+ substrates utilizing a chlorosilane/propane chemistry in both single wafer and batch CVD systems. Variations of the chlorosilane flow under fixed conditions of gas composition, temperature and pressure resulted in growth rates between 4 to 20 μm/hr. Fixing the chlorosilane flow rate to achieve a growth rate of approximately 4 μm/hr, the effects of temperature, pressure and gas composition on background dopant incorporation, epitaxial layer uniformity and epitaxial defect generation were investigated. Intentional n and p-type doping has been demonstrated over the carrier range 1×1018-1×1020/cm3. This paper presents the first reported of use of chlorosilane precursors to grow high quality undoped, n and p doped SiC epilayers.