Two- and three-dimensional simulation of chemical vapor deposition SiC epitaxial growth processes

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3-D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools were applied to enhance capabilities of the two-dimensional (2-D) simulation in predicting such important characteristics of the SiC Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) epitaxial growth process as growth rate, growth rate nonhomogeneity in longitudinal and transverse directions, and growth morphology. Depletion of the precursors in the gas phase along the growth direction was shown to be one of the most important sources for the growth rate nonhomogeneity. The rate of precursor depletion along the growth direction in the center of the susceptor is different from that closer to the sides of the susceptor due to the nonhomogeneous temperature profile in the transverse direction. This difference causes a significant increase in the growth rate away from the center of the susceptor toward the reactor walls. Simulated precursor supersaturation above the growth surface was the highest at the leading edge of the susceptor and near the reactor walls, which correlates with the morphology degradation in those regions.