A Review of SiC Reactive Ion Etching in Fluorinated Plasmas

Abstract

Research and development in semiconducting silicon carbide (SiC) technology has produced significant progress in the past five years in many areas: material (bulk and thin film) growth, device fabrication, and applications. A major factor in this rapid growth has been the development of SiC bulk crystals and the availability of crystalline substrates. Current leading applications for SiC devices include high power and high temperature devices and light emitting diodes. Due to the strong bonding between Si and C (Si–C = 1.34×Si–Si), wet chemical etching can only be performed at high temperature. Therefore, plasma-based (“dry”) etching plays the crucial role of patterning SiC for the fabrication of various electronic devices. In the past several years, reactive ion etching (RIE) of SiC polytypes (3C and 6H) has been investigated in fluorinated gases (primarily CHF3, CBrF3, CF4, SF6, and NF3), usually mixed with oxygen and occasionally with other additives or in a mixture of fluorinated gases. In this paper, a review of SiC RIE is presented. The primary emphasis is on etching of the 3C and 6H polytypes, but some results on RIE of the 4H polytype are included. The paper covers the basic etching mechanisms, provides typical etching properties in selected plasma conditions, discusses the effects of changes in various etching parameters, such as plasma pressure, density and power, etching time, etc. The etching of features of sizes varying from sub-μm to tens of μm's is addressed. Finally, optimum etching conditions and trade-offs are considered for various device configurations.