A novel method for etching trenches in silicon carbide

Abstract

In this paper, a novel trench etching technique for silicon carbide is described. In this technique, ion implantation is used to first create an amorphous silicon carbide region. The amorphous layer is then etched away by wet chemical etching. Trenches of 0.3 to 0.8 μ have been obtained using a single implantaion/etching step. It has been demonstrated that deeper trenches can be obtained by repeating the implantation/etching step with platinum as a masking material. The etched surface was found to be smooth when compared with reactive ion etched surfaces reported for silicon carbide.