Orientation Dependence of the Oxidation of SiC Surfaces

Abstract

The orientation dependence of the thermal oxidation rates in 6H‐SiC has been investigated. The wet oxidation was performed in steam and in the temperature range of 1000 to 1200 °C. The linear rate sharply changes at an off‐angle around 30° from the {0001}‐face. This large anisotropy in oxidation rate will cause a difficulty in controlling the bird's beak length in LOCOS. The activation energy of the linear rate gradually increases from C‐face to Si‐face. The situation is quite different from silicon in which the orientation dependence of the activation energy is explained by the steric hindrance.

Technical aspects of 〈$ \bf 11\bar 20 $〉 4H–SiC MOSFET processing

“…In good agreement with the results of Ref. [11] for 6H-SiC and Refs. [13,14] for 4H-SiC, two different oxide thicknesses were found.…”

“…To get full advantage of the potentiality of the 〈1120〉 orientation for improved MOSFET processing, a careful optimisation of the oxidation step has then to be done [11,12]. In this work, we started checking the oxidation rate.…”

SiC seed polarity-dependent bulk AlN growth under the influence of residual oxygen

“…Main cause is the strong anisotropic oxidation behavior of the SiC according to the crystal structure and the bonding characteristics. Previously published studies of the oxidation of SiC on air show the highest and slowest oxidation rates on the C-face and Si-face, respectively [28][29][30]. In spite of the different process conditions of these experiments some important conclusions can be drawn.…”

Two-dimensional defect mapping of the SiO2/4H−SiC interface

“…Since the interface defect density is a function of the oxide thickness (t ox ) below the probing tip, local variations of t ox on macrostepped SiC surfaces due to the orientation-dependent oxide growth rate have to be carefully considered [6,31,32]. For the calculation of D it , experimentally determined t ox values were therefore used.…”