An overview of SiC epitaxial growth

Fueled by the introduction of commercially available SiC wafers, significant progress on epitaxial growth has been accomplished as evidenced by the continued progress made in SiC-based device research and in the emergence of commercially viable SiC electronics. Despite continued success in SiC-based device research, significant hurdles must be overcome before some theoretically predicted devices can be realized. Many of these device-limiting issues center mainly on needed improvements in crystal quality of both the boule-derived SiC substrate material and the subsequently grown SiC epitaxial layers. Examples of device-limiting defects inherent to the substrate material include micropipes and dislocations. Numerous other subsurface defects present in asreceived SiC substrates are believed to be mainly caused by use of nonoptimized SiC-wafer polishing techniques. Although SiC semiconductor technology is advancing rapidly, numerous obstacles remain that need to be overcome for realization of commercially viable crystal growth techniques for SiC-based device manufacture.