Ion implantation and activation of aluminum in bulk 3C-SiC and 3C-SiC on Si

Emerging wide bandgap semiconductor devices such as the ones built with SiC have the potential to revolutionize the power electronics industry through faster switching speeds, lower losses, and higher blocking voltages, which are superior to standard silicon-based devices. Besides the widely used 4H-SiC, the cubic polytype 3C-SiC, with 2.3 eV band gap, has interesting features such as possibility to be grown on a silicon substrate, a reduced density of states at the SiC/SiO 2 interface, and a higher channel mobility—characteristics that are ideal for its incorporation in metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors. However, realization of defect free bulk 3C-SiC wafers is very challenging and p + doping and activation mechanisms using ion implantation followed by thermal annealing are not well-known. Within the framework of the European R&D project CHALLENGE, we studied ion implantation of Aluminum on bulk 3C-SiC as well on EPI grown 3C-SiC on Si performed by furnace and/or laser anneal. For 3C-SiC on Si, results using long furnace anneal at temperature < 1400 °C as well as laser anneal are presented. For bulk 3C-SiC, higher temperature anneals (1650 to 1800 °C) are studied. SIMS, ECV, -and TLM characterization methods have been used to study the chemical and active dopant profiles as well as sheet resistance and contact resistance. Demonstration of a fully implanted PiN vertical Diode on Bulk 3C-SiC is then presented. Graphical abstract