Electrical leakage phenomenon in heteroepitaxial cubic silicon carbide on silicon
Abstract
Heteroepitaxial 3C-SiC films on silicon substrates are of technological interest as enablers to integrate the excellent electrical, electronic, mechanical, thermal, and epitaxial properties of bulk silicon carbide into well-established silicon technologies. One critical bottleneck of this integration is the establishment of a stable and reliable electronic junction at the heteroepitaxial interface of the n-type SiC with the silicon substrate. We have thus investigated in detail the electrical and transport properties of heteroepitaxial cubic silicon carbide films grown via different methods on low-doped and high-resistivity silicon substrates by using van der Pauw Hall and transfer length measurements as test vehicles. We have found that Si and C intermixing upon or after growth, particularly by the diffusion of carbon into the silicon matrix, creates extensive interstitial carbon traps and hampers the formation of a stable rectifying or insulating junction at the SiC/Si interface. Although a reliable p-n junction may not be realistic in the SiC/Si system, we can achieve, from a point of view of the electrical isolation of in-plane SiC structures, leakage suppression through the substrate by using a high-resistivity silicon substrate coupled with deep recess etching in between the SiC structures.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 31, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.5026124
Entities
People
- Aiswarya Pradeepkumar
- D. Kurt Gaskill
- Francesca Iacopi
- Giovanni Verzellesi
- Marcin Zielinski
- Matteo Bosi
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Naval Research Laboratory
- University of Technology Sydney