Fabrication of silicon on insulator wafer with silicon carbide insulator layer by surface-activated bonding at room temperature

Abstract

We propose a process for the fabrication of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer with a silicon carbide (SiC) insulator layer by combining plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and surface-activated bonding without thermal stress to obtain sufficient thermal conductivity for self-heating power and high-frequency device applications. The thermal conductivity of the deposited SiC layer is twice that of a silicon dioxide (SiO2) layer, and the breakdown electric field of this layer is 10–11 MV cm−1, the same as that of a SiO2 layer. In addition, the bonding interface between the silicon layer and the deposited SiC insulator layer has no voids or punch-out dislocations. Therefore, the SOI wafer with a SiC layer has high thermal conductivity and breakdown electric field; this SOI wafer and its fabrication process will be important for the realization of next-generation self-heating devices such as power and high-frequency devices.