Epitaxial growth of cubic silicon carbide on silicon using hot filament chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

We are reporting the application of hot filament chemical vapor deposition for the growth of high-quality single-crystalline cubic silicon carbide heteroepitaxially on silicon substrates. Rocking curve X-ray diffraction measurements revealed a full-width at half maximum as low as 333arcsec for a 15μm thick layer. Low tensile strain, below 0.1%, was measured using Raman spectroscopy resulting in a wafer bow as low as 6μm over a full 4″ substrate. We achieved this quality using a carefully optimized process making use of the additional degrees of freedom the hot filaments create. These allow for precursor pre-cracking and a tuning of the vertical thermal gradient, which creates an improved thermal field compared to classic chemical vapor deposition techniques used for the deposition of this material today. Measurements of the material uniformity show an influence of the lateral temperature field and of the stoichiometry, which is influenced by the graphite based sample holder.