Materials Science Forum Vol. 924

Abstract: The scanning of Silicon Carbide (SiC) epitaxy wafers for defects by ultraviolet (UV) laser or lamps is widely prevalent. In this work, we document the effects of UV light excitation on the SiC epitaxy material. An increase in background photoluminescence (PL) is observed after repeated scans. The effect of this increase on defect detection is shown. Optimal surface treatments to recover the material back to the original state are demonstrated. Further, some surface treatments are proposed which reduce the effect of the UV light excitation and prevent to a large extent the rise in background PL.

Abstract: Depth profiling of the ambipolar carrier lifetime was performed in n-type, 140mm thick silicon carbide (SiC) epilayer using excitation by two-photon absorption (TPA) with a pulsed 586nm laser, and confocal measurement of time resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) decay from the excited region. A depth resolution of ≈10mm was obtained. The PL decay curves were analyzed using a recently developed formalism that takes into account the TPA excitation, carrier diffusion and surface/interface recombination. The carrier lifetime decreases near the top surface of the epitaxial layer as well as near its interface with the substrate.

Abstract: For high voltage SiC bipolar devices, carrier lifetime is an important parameter, and for optimization of device performance, we need to control distribution of the carrier lifetime in a wafer. So far, there have been limited systems for depth-resolved carrier lifetime measurements without cross sectional cut. In this study, we adopted a free carrier absorption technique and made local overlapping of the probe laser light with excitation laser light to develop depth-resolved carrier lifetime measurements. We named the developed system a microscopic FCA system and demonstrated measurement results for samples with and without intentional carrier lifetime distribution.

Abstract: We measured Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra of SiO₂ films with a various thickness, grown on 4H-SiC substrates. The peak frequency of the transverse optical (TO) phonon mode was blue-shifted by about 5 cm⁻¹ as the oxide-layer thickness decreased from 50-60 nm to 10 nm. The blue shift of the TO mode is considerd to be caused by interfacial compressive stresses in the oxide-layer. On the other hand, the TO phonon mode was found to dramatically decrease as the oxide-layer thickness decreased from 10 nm to 1.7 nm. The CL measurement indicates that the intensity of the CL peaks at about 460 and 490 nm attributed to oxygen vacancy centers (OVCs) for No.2 become stronger than that for No.1. From a comparison between FT-IR and CL measurements, we concluded that the red-shift of the TO phonon with decreasing the oxide-layer thickness can mainly be attributed to an increase in inhomogeneity at the SiO₂/SiC interface with decreasing oxide-layer thickness.

Abstract: Current-voltage characterization and thermal dielectric relaxation current (TDRC) measurements are carried out on 4H silicon carbide (SiC) n-channel MOSFETs processed with different post oxidation anneals (POAs) in O₂, N₂O, and NO atmospheres at high temperature. In all samples we observe a distinct peak at a temperature of 70 K in the TDRC spectra due to a defect close to the conduction band of 4H-SiC having a high density of states (>10¹³ cm^-2eV^-1). We show that this defect is related to the degradation of the device performance such as the MOSFET conductivity. Comparing the different POAs, NO strongly reduces the density of states close to the conduction band and thus increases the amount of free channel electrons. Based on TDRC measurements we want to suggest a method for more accurate estimation of the true channel mobility accounting for the reduced channel electron density due to trapping.

Abstract: We investigated single photon sources (SPSs) in 4H-SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) by means of confocal microscope techniques. We found SPSs only in 4H-SiC/SiO₂ interface regions of wet-oxide C-face MOSFETs. The other regions of MOSFETs such as source, drain and well did not exhibit SPSs. The luminescent intensity of the SPSs at room temperature was at least twice larger than that of the most famous SPSs, the nitrogen-vacancy center, in diamond. We examined four types of C-face and Si-face 4H-SiC MOSFETs with different oxidation processes, and found that the formation of the SPSs strongly depended on the preparation of SiC/SiO₂ interfaces.

Abstract: In this paper, near interface traps (NITs) in lateral 4H-SiC MOSFETs were investigated employing temperature dependent transient gate capacitance measurements (C-t). The C-t measurements as a function of temperature indicated that the effective NITs discharge time is temperature independent and electrons from NITs are emitted toward the semiconductor via-tunnelling and/or trap-to-trap tunnelling. The NITs discharge time was modelled taking into account also the interface state density in a distributed circuit and it allowed to locate traps within a distance of about 1.3nm from the SiO₂/4H-SiC interface.

Abstract: We demonstrate our new local deep level spectroscopy system improved for more accurate analysis of trap states at SiO₂/4H-SiC interfaces. Full waveforms of the local capacitance transient with the amplitude of attofarads and the time scale of microseconds were obtained and quantitatively analyzed. The local energy distribution of interface state density in the energy range of E_C − E_it = 0.31–0.38 eV was obtained. Two-dimensional mapping of the interface states showed inhomogeneous contrasts with the lateral spatial scale of several hundreds of nanometers, suggesting that the physical origin of the trap states at SiO₂/SiC interfaces is likely to be microscopically clustered.

Abstract: The annealing behavior of electrical resistivities perpendicular and parallel to the basal plane of heavily nitrogen-doped 4H-SiC crystals was investigated. The temperature dependencies of the resistivities exhibited characteristic behaviors after multiple rounds of high-temperature annealing (1100°C, 30 min). High-temperature annealing induced stacking fault formation to various extents in heavily nitrogen-doped 4H-SiC crystals. Based on these results, we discuss the cause and mechanism of the observed annealing-induced changes in electrical resistivities of the crystals.

Abstract: Epitaxial cubic silicon carbide films on silicon have attracted extensive interest for semiconductor device applications such as high-voltage, high-frequency diodes, and hetero-junction bi-polar transistors [1]. This is because they can offer access to the properties of the SiC material such as its wide band gap and high thermal conductivity on the more conventional silicon substrates [2]. Rahimi et al. have shown, however, that the substantial tensile strain generated from the lattice and thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between 3C-SiC and silicon, may reduce the band gap in the SiC epitaxial films [3]. Nevertheless, the impact of this phenomenon on the electrical and electronic performance of the epitaxial SiC films on silicon has not been fully elucidated to date; such information is vital to obtain the optimal performance of devices fabricated from these strained heterojunctions.