3C-SiC on Si Substrates Using Pendeo-Epitaxial Growth

Cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) growth using Pendeo-epitaxy technique was successfully achieved on Si(001) substrates. 3C-SiC was grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with silane and propane as precursors. Effects of underlying stripes and seed 3C-SiC layers thickness on PE 3C-SiC films were investigated. Root mean square (RMS) measurements using atomic force microscope (AFM) showed that surface morphology of PE 3C-SiC films remarkably improves with an increase of the seed 3C-SiC layer thickness, and the values were from 9.8 nm for 3 µm thick seed layer to 0.5 nm for 10 µm thick seed layer thickness. Additionally, domain boundary densities were counted, and the values also strongly depend on the seed layer thickness: from >1500/mm2 for 3 µm seed layer thickness to <100/mm2 for 10 µm seed layer thickness. Pendeo-epiaxial growth profiles with various width/separation dimensions of stripes were also investigated, and stripes with width of 10 µm and separation of 5 µm provide the best profile and process viability.