Papers by Author: Michael Vogel

Abstract: One of the most crucial defects for the device fabrication on silicon carbide (SiC) substrates are areas with low crystalline quality and micro-pipe clusters which can still occupy several percent of the area in commercial available 4H-substrates. These defects originate from the seed or are generated by modification changes during growth and can be easily detected under crossed polarizers. In this presentation the historic development at SiCrystal from Acheson material to wafers with 100mm diameter, state of the art micro-pipe density and excellent crystalline quality (FWHM < 20 arcsec) on whole area will be shown. Additionally the influence of carbon inclusions on surface quality and the present dislocation densities in 4H substrates will be discussed. While carbon inclusions were reduced to uncritical levels dislocation densities are still in the range of 104 cm-2. Therefore strategies for further reduction will be pointed out. Finally a resistivity limit (16 mΩcm) for stacking fault formation during annealing at 1150°C will be defined.

Abstract: We carried out investigations to elucidate the reasons for polytype changes in 4H. The aim was to sustain polytype stability throughout the entire process. The investigations were accompanied by studies on the formation of basal plane dislocations and their role as source for stacking faults. Several methods for the evaluation of material properties were applied to determine quality most precisely, e.g. KOH-defect-etching, optical microscopy, electron microscopy and X-ray-diffraction. We found out that several influences in growth conditions have to be controlled in a proper manner to achieve defect reduction. Based on these investigations we were able to improve our process and the crystal quality significantly. Best values for 3” 4H wafers show that EPD = 5x103 cm-2 , MPD < 0.1 cm-2 and FWHM-values < 15 arcsec can be achieved.