Papers by Author: Ricardo Reitano

Abstract: 4H-SiC epitaxial layers have been grown using trichlorosilane (TCS) as the silicon precursor source together with ethylene as the carbon precursor source. A higher C/Si ratio is necessary compared with the silane/ethylene system. This ratio has to be reduced especially at higher Si/H2 ratio because the step-bunching effect occurs. From the comparison with the process that uses silane as the silicon precursor, a 15% higher growth rate has been found using TCS (trichlorosilane) at the same Si/H2 ratio. Furthermore, in the TCS process, the presence of chlorine, that reduces the possibility of silicon droplet formation, allows to use a high Si/H2 ratio and then to reach high growth rates (16 *m/h). The obtained results on the growth rates, the surface roughness and the crystal quality are very promising.

Abstract: The growth rate of 4H-SiC epi layers has been increased by a factor 3 (up to 18μm/h) with respect to the standard process with the introduction of HCl in the deposition chamber. The epitaxial layers grown with the addition of HCl have been characterized by electrical, optical and structural characterization methods. An optimized process without the addition of HCl is reported for comparison. The Schottky diodes, manufactured on the epitaxial layer grown with the addition of HCl at 1600 °C, have electrical characteristics comparable with the standard epitaxial process with the advantage of an epitaxial growth rate three times higher.

Abstract: Deep-Level Transient Spectroscopy and room temperature photoluminescence were used to characterise a 6H-SiC epitaxial layer irradiated with 10 MeV C+ and to follow the defect annealing in the temperature range 300-1400 °C. The intensity of luminescence peak at 423 nm, related to band to band transitions, decreases after irradiation and it is slowly recovered after annealing in the temperature range 1000-1400 °C. The DLTS spectra of low temperature annealed samples show the presence of several overlapping traps, which anneal and evolve at high temperatures. After 1200 °C a main level at Ec-0.43 eV (E1/E2) is detected. The comparison between luminescence and DLTS results indicates that the defect associated with the E1/E2 level is mainly responsible for the luminescence quenching after irradiation.

Abstract: The effects of the Si/H2 ratio on the growth of the epitaxial layer and on the epitaxial defects was studied in detail. A large increase of the growth rate has been observed with the increase of the silicon flux in the CVD reactor. Close to a Si/H2 ratio of 0.05 % silicon nucleation in the gas phase occurs producing a great amount of silicon particles that precipitate on the wafers. The epitaxial layers grown with a Si/H2 ratio of 0.03% show a low defect density and a low leakage current of the Schottky diodes realized on these wafers. For these diodes the DLTS spectra show thepresence of several peaks at 0.14, 0.75, 1.36 and 1.43 eV. For epitaxial layers grown with higher values of the Si/H2 ratio and then with an higher growth rate, the leakage current of the Schottky diodes increases considerably.

Abstract: Photoluminescence (PL) and time resolved PL are well established as important experimental techniques to study electronic properties of SiC. We studied the influence of ionimplantation on the photoluminescence peak at 423nm and the variation of the minority carrier lifetime (MCL).

Abstract: The results of a new epitaxial process using an industrial 6x2” wafer reactor with the introduction of HCl during the growth have been reported. A complete reduction of silicon nucleation in the gas phase has been observed even for high silicon dilution parameters (Si/H2>0.05) and an increase of the growth rate until about 20 µm/h has been measured. No difference has been observed in terms of defects, doping uniformity (average maximum variation 8%) and thickness uniformity (average maximum variation 1.2 %) with respect to the standard process without HCl.