Micro-structural analysis of local damage introduced in subsurface regions of 4H-SiC wafers during chemo-mechanical polishing

Abstract

The surface morphology and lattice defect structures in the subsurface regions of 4H-SiC wafers introduced during chemo-mechanical polishing (CMP) were studied by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. It is known that local damage consisting of high-density lattice defects is introduced in the wafers during the current CMP, however, optical microscopy showed that the surface was very flat and clean without any presence of surface defects. Specifically, this study focused on the detailed analysis of such lattice defect structures. The high-density lattice defects locally introduced in the subsurface regions consisted of nano-scale surface scratches, high-density basal-plane dislocation loops, Shockley-type stacking faults, and Y-shaped defects. Two types of dislocation loops were introduced near the scratches that were selected for further study: nearly perfect basal-plane dislocations, which were accompanied by narrow stacking faults, and apparent partial basal-plane dislocations, which were accompanied by wide stacking faults. A Y-shaped defect was observed in the local damage along the [112¯0] direction, but not in the local damage along the [1¯100] direction. It was also found that the directions of the Burgers vectors for the basal-plane dislocations clearly depended on the directions of the introduced scratch-like defects.