Chlorinated precursor study in low temperature chemical vapor deposition of 4H-SiC

Abstract

Low temperature (1300 °C) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of SiC has gained interest in the last years for being less demanding in terms of reaction chamber lifetime, but also for allowing higher p-type dopant incorporation. Chloride-based CVD at low temperatures has been studied using chloromethane with tetrachlorosilane or silane, respectively and with or without controlled HCl addition. In this study we explore the use of methyltrichlorosilane (MTS) at growth temperatures (1300 °C) significantly lower than what is commonly used for homoepitaxial growth of SiC (1600 °C). MTS is a molecule containing all the needed precursor atoms; its effects are compared to the standard CVD chemistry, consisting of silane, ethylene, and HCl. Very different chemistries between the two precursor systems are proposed; in the case of MTS, C/Si ratios higher than 1 were required, however using the standard chemistry ratios lower than 1 were needed to obtain a defect-free epitaxial layer. We also demonstrate the need of using Cl/Si ratios as high as 15 to achieve a growth rate of 13 μm/h for 8° off-axis 4H-SiC epitaxial layers at 1300 °C. Limitations due to the low growth temperature are discussed in light of the experimental evidence on the growth mechanism as determined by the morphology degradation and the limited growth rate. Finally a comparison between the epilayers morphology obtained on 4H-SiC substrates with different off-cuts are presented, confirming the importance of lower C/Si ratios for 4° off-axis material and the inevitable growth of the cubic SiC polytype on on-axis substrates.