Understanding the Chemistry in Silicon Carbide Chemical Vapor Deposition

Abstract

Understanding the chemistry in CVD of SiC is important to be able to control, improve and scale up the process to become industrially competitive. A thorough understanding have so far been difficult to achieve due to the complex nature of the process. Through modeling tools, and a systematic approach when constructing the chemical models, new insights to the SiC CVD chemistry can be obtained. Using a general model that is independent on the choice of precursors and reactor configuration, and by coupling modeling results to experimental findings, we here show that SiCl2 and SiH2 previously suggested as the main silicon bearing growth species in the chlorinated and standard chemistries, respectively, does not contribute significantly to the SiC growth, and that the main active species are C2H2, CH3, Si, and SiCl.