Silicon carbide power semiconductors overcome some limitations of silicon chips, and therefore, SiC is an attractive candidate for next-generation power electronics. In addition, the number of possible vertical devices that can be obtained on a given surface using the trench technique is significantly larger than that attainable using a planar setup. Moreover, a SiC trench power metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (power MOSFET) structure removes the junction field-effect transistor (JFET) region (that would decrease the current flow width) and improves the channel density, thus reducing the specific electrical resistance. Consequently, in the present study, we report on the chemical bonding state of elements and structural characterization of trenches, obtained using SF 6 -based plasma etching, on the 4H-SiC polytype substrate. An interferometric algorithm that finds the endpoint to stop etching governed the trench depth. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses stated the high quality and uniformity of the trenches. These materials are particularly promising for the fabrication of the SiC MOSFET to be implemented in the manufacturing of power devices.

Manufacturing of Silicon Carbide (SiC) based devices will soon require the accuracy and control typical of the advanced Si based nanoelectronics. As a consequence, the processes development will surely benefit of technology computer aided design (TCAD) tools dedicated to the current and future SiC process technologies. Plasma etching is one of the most critical and difficult process for optimization procedures in the micro/nanofabrication area, since the resultant 2D (e.g. in trenches) or 3D (e.g in holes) profiling is the consequence of the complex interactions between plasma and materials in the device structures. In this contribution we present a simulation tool dedicated to the etching simulation of SiC structures based on the sequential combination of a plasma scale global model and feature scale Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. As an example of the approach validation procedure the simulations are compared with the characterization analysis of particular real process results.