Ultra Large Scale Manufacturing Challenges of Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride Based Power Devices and Systems

Abstract

The potential of wide band gap (WBG) semiconductors for manufacturing ultra-high performance power devices and systems is well known [1]. Historically, silicon carbide research is as old as is the discovery of transistors [2]. In recent years, significant progress has been made in reducing the bulk crystal defects. As a result, for niche applications some SiC and GaN products are currently in the market. However, silicon dominates the power devices and systems market. In an earlier publication [3] we pointed out that bulk crystal defects and process induced defects are still the major road blocks in creating a SiC and GaN semiconductor based power devices and power systems market. This is due to the fact that best values of performance, reliability and yield of semiconductor products can be obtained only when the microstructure is homogenous and minimum defect density is observed [4]. It is a well-known fact in semiconductor manufacturing that other than feature size reduction, the prime reason for the success of silicon manufacturing for low power and power devices has been the reduction of defect density. Currently the defect density of SiC and GaN based products is several orders of magnitude higher than the defect density of Si based semiconductor products. The general notion in the WBG semiconductor based power devices and power system community has been that older generation of silicon manufacturing is good enough to manufacturer WBG based power devices [5]. The prime reason for the success of silicon manufacturing is that the process control of semiconductor manufacturing has evolved from classical statistical process control (SPC) to advanced process control (APC). In other words, batch processing has been replaced by single wafer processing [6]. The key objective of this paper is to demonstrate that without making major process control changes in SiC and GaN processing, these materials will have only niche markets in power semiconductor devices and systems manufacturing. REFERENCES R. Singh, K. Shenai, G.F. Alapatt and S.M. Evon ,"Semiconductor Manufacturing for Clean Energy Economy", Invited Paper, Proc. IEEE Energy Tech 2013 Technology Frontiers in Sustainable Power and Energy, May 21-23, 2013, Case Western Reserve University, published by IEEE, 9781467344449/13 , 2013G. K. Teal, “Single crystals of germanium and silicon—Basic to the transistor and integrated circuit”, IEEE Trans. on Electron Dev. vol. 23, no.7, pp. 621 – 639, 1976K. Shenai, A. Christou, M. Dudley, B. Ragothamachar, and R. Singh,” Crystal Defects in Wide Bandgap Semiconductors”, ECS Transactions, vol. 61 pp. 283-293, 2014R. Singh, V. Parihar, K. F. Poole and K. Rajkanan, “Semiconductor Manufacturing in the 21st Century”, Semiconductor Fabtech, 9th Edition, pp. 223-232, 1999R, Singh and R. Thakur, “Chip Making’s Singular Future”, IEEE Spectrum, February 1, 2005, http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/materials/chip-makings-singular-futureR. Ivester, “Accelerating Innovation: PowerAmerica Is Up and Running”, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, February 3, 2015, http://energy.gov/eere/amo/articles/accelerating-innovation-poweramerica-and-running-0 (accessed: April 15, 2015)