3C-SiC — From Electronic to MEMS Devices

Abstract

Since decades, silicon carbide (SiC) has been avowed as an interesting material for highpower and high-temperature applications because of its significant properties including its wide bandgap energy and high temperature stability. SiC is also professed as an ideal candidate for microsystem applications due to its excellent mechanical properties and chemical inertia, making it suitable for harsh environments. Among the 250 different SiC polytypes, only 4H, 6H and 3C-SiC are commercially available. The cubic structure, 3C-SiC, is the only one that can be grown on cheap silicon substrates. Hence, 3C-SiC is more interesting than any other polytype for reducing fabrication costs and increasing wafer diameter. This huge property has been evidenced for more than 30 years using chemical vapor deposition. Despite this key achievement and the growing interest for silicon carbide, no 3C-SiC-based devices can be found on the market whereas 4H-SiCbased devices are more and more largely commercialized. Even so, important headways have been reached for electrical and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) applica‐ tions. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to address concerns related to electronic applications and MEMS fabrication of 3C-SiC-based devices, trying to give a broad overview on specific issues and challenging solutions.