Evaluation of Model for Determining Nitrogen Doping Concentration from Resultant Strain in Heavily Doped 4H-SiC Crystals

Abstract

Lattice strain in 4H-SiC substrate wafers can strongly affect the performance of power electronic devices especially under the high temperature operation. The impurity incorporation in highly doped 4H-SiC crystals can result in significant lattice parameter change. Recently we reported [1] the synchrotron X-ray topographic contour mapping [2] technique to deconvolute lattice parameter variations from lattice tilt and thus generate strain maps. These strain maps have been incorporated into an anisotropic elasticity model to derive the nitrogen doping concentration variation in the 4H-SiC wafer. Doping distribution can be derived using a set of anisotropic strain maps detected by recording series of diffraction contours across the same region. The nondestructive contour mapping method we developed is capable of not only determining the concentration but also the distribution of the doping i.e. a doping map. In order to verify the doping level determined by contour mapping, we prepared samples with different N-doping levels. Contacts were created by depositing Ni using e-beam evaporator followed by rapid annealing. Hall effect measurements have been carried out on these samples to measure the carrier concentration in order to determine the doping values. The measured values are found to be in good agreement with the doping map derived using our contour mapping method. Reference Yu Yang, Jianqiu Guo, Balaji Raghothamachar, Xiaojun Chan, Taejin Kim, Michael Dudley, J. Electron. Mater. 47(2), 938-943 (2018).J. Guo, Y. Yang, B. Raghothamachar, M. Dudley, and S. Stoupin, J. Electron. Mater. 47(2), 903-909 (2018).