Reactive Ion Etching Induced Surface Damage of Silicon Carbide

Jun Hai Xia; E. Rusli; R. Gopalakrishnan; S.F. Choy; Chin Che Tin; J. Ahn; S.F. Yoon

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.483-485.765

Paper Titles

Effect of the Metal Composition on the Electrical and Thermal Properties of Au/Pd/Ti/Pd Contacts to p-Type SiC
p.749

Step Structures Produced by Hydrogen Etching of Initially Step-Free (0001) 4H-SiC Mesas
p.753

Reduction of Fluoride Species and Surface Roughness by H₂ Gas Addition in SiC Dry Etching
p.757

Structure and Morphology of 4H-SiC Wafer Surfaces after H₂-Etching
p.761

Reactive Ion Etching Induced Surface Damage of Silicon Carbide
p.765

The Reactive Neutral Beam Etching of SiC and its Application in p-n Junction Periphery Protection
p.769

Forward-Bias Degradation in 4H-SiC p⁺nn⁺ Diodes: Influence of the Mesa Etching
p.773

Trench Formation on Ion Implanted SiC Surfaces after Thermal Oxidation
p.777

Metal Bonding in SiC Based Substrates
p.781

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Reactive Ion Etching Induced Surface Damage of Silicon Carbide

Abstract:

Reactive ion etching of SiC induced surface damage, e.g., micromasking effect induced coarse and textured surface, is one of the main concerns in the fabrication of SiC based power devices [1]. Based on CHF3 + O2 plasma, 4H-SiC was etched under a wide range of RF power. Extreme coarse and textured etched surfaces were observed under certain etching conditions. A super-linear relationship was found between the surface roughness and RF power when the latter was varied from 40 to 160 W. A further increase in the RF power to 200 W caused the surface roughness to drop abruptly from its maximum value of 182.4 nm to its minimum value of 1.3 nm. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) results revealed that besides the Al micromasking effect, the carbon residue that formed a carbon-rich layer, could also play a significant role in affecting the surface roughness. Based on the AES results, an alternative explanation on the origin of the coarse surface is proposed.