Thomas E. Anderson

Status of Large Diameter SiC Single Crystals

Large-diameter SiC single crystals are grown at II-VI by the sublimation technique. 100mm substrates of semi-insulating 6H SiC and n-type 4H SiC are produced as commercial products; in development, diameter expansion to 125mm has been achieved. Over the last two years, significant improvements have been made in crystal quality. The values of FWHM of x-ray rocking curves are typically 20-40 arc-seconds for 6H SI wafers and 12-30 arc-seconds for 4H n+ wafers. Micropipe density is less than 3 cm-2, and less than 0.1 cm-2 in best substrates. Electrical resistivity of SI substrates is, typically, of 1011 Ω•cm or above. For 4H n+ substrates, the typical dislocation density is about 9×103 cm-2 and the typical BPD density is less than 1×103 cm-2.

Carrier lifetime in conductive and vanadium-doped 6H-SiC substrates

Conductive undoped and semi-insulating vanadium-doped 6H-SiC substrates were studied using the light-induced transient grating technique and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Carrier lifetime of 400±10 ps and diffusion coefficient of 2.7±0.2 cm2 s−1 were obtained for the nominally undoped wafer, while the corresponding parameters for the V-doped wafer were estimated to be 130±5 ps and 0.9±0.5 cm2 s−1, respectively. The peak PL intensity in the vanadium-doped wafers is more than three orders of magnitude lower than that in nominally undoped wafers. Low-temperature cw PL spectra revealed a band peaked at 507 nm, which is caused by V doping.

Advanced PVT Growth of 2 & 3-Inch Diameter 6H SiC Crystals

Abstract. The Wide Bandgap Materials Group of II-VI Inc., develops, manufactures and markets n+ and semi-insulating (SI) 6H SiC crystals, including vanadium-compensated and V-free. The PVT growth process is tuned to produce high-quality semi-insulating 6H SiC boules with micropipe densities below 15 cm (for 2-inch wafers) and below 70 cm (for 3-inch wafers). Room temperature resistivity for 2-inch and 3-inch SI V-doped wafers is greater than 10 Ω·cm and 10 Ω·cm, respectively. A novel synthesis process is used for the production of high-purity polycrystalline SiC source, yielding a material in which most impurities are below their GDMS detection limits. An advanced PVT process (APVT) has been developed for the growth of V-free SI 6H SiC crystals. These APVT SiC crystals contain boron below 6.2·10cm, nitrogen below 4.0·10cm and demonstrate semi-insulating behavior with ρ between 10 and 10 Ω·cm. Photoluminescence and EPR of V-free 6H SiC has been studied and EPR data have been assigned to native point defects (C vacancy, Si antisite and CVAC-CSi pair).

Effect of high-temperature annealing on electrical and optical properties of undoped semi-insulating GaAs

A comprehensive characterization, including room temperature Hall effect, near infrared absorption, temperature dependent dark current and photocurrent (using 1.13 eV light), normalized thermally stimulated current (NTSC), photoluminescence at 4.2 K in both near band edge and deep level regions, and selective pair photoluminescence (SPL) at 2 K, has been carried out on undoped semi-insulating GaAs samples, cut from four wafers which were grown by the low pressure liquid encapsulated Czochralski technique and annealed by three different schedules: a 1100 °C anneal with either fast or slow cooling, or a 1000 °C standard anneal. The 1100 °C anneal clearly introduces higher concentrations of NTSC traps near 0.3 and 0.5 eV, a PL center at 0.8 eV, and acceptor centers, which are mainly due to the point defects and increase the resistivity. Slow cooling to some extent reduces all of these additional centers. The SPL measurements show changes in the relative intensities of C, Zn, and Si related emissions with changes in annealing conditions.A comprehensive characterization, including room temperature Hall effect, near infrared absorption, temperature dependent dark current and photocurrent (using 1.13 eV light), normalized thermally stimulated current (NTSC), photoluminescence at 4.2 K in both near band edge and deep level regions, and selective pair photoluminescence (SPL) at 2 K, has been carried out on undoped semi-insulating GaAs samples, cut from four wafers which were grown by the low pressure liquid encapsulated Czochralski technique and annealed by three different schedules: a 1100 °C anneal with either fast or slow cooling, or a 1000 °C standard anneal. The 1100 °C anneal clearly introduces higher concentrations of NTSC traps near 0.3 and 0.5 eV, a PL center at 0.8 eV, and acceptor centers, which are mainly due to the point defects and increase the resistivity. Slow cooling to some extent reduces all of these additional centers. The SPL measurements show changes in the relative intensities of C, Zn, and Si related emissions with cha...

Growth and Characterization of Large Diameter 6H and 4H SiC Single Crystals

Over the past year, II-VI has transitioned from 2” to 3” commercial SiC substrates. Large-diameter semi-insulating 6H-SiC and n-type 4H-SiC single crystals are grown using the Advanced PVT growth process. Expansion of boule diameter from 2 to 3 and up to 4.25 inches has been carried out using a specially designed growth technique. Stable semi-insulating properties in 6H-SiC are achieved by precise vanadium compensation. The technique of compensation is optimized to produce a controlled and spatially uniform distribution of vanadium and high and spatially uniform electrical resistivity reaching 10 10 – 1011 ·cm. N-type 3-inch 4H-SiC crystals are grown using doping with nitrogen, and 3-inch 4H-SiC substrates show uniform resistivity of about 0.018 ·cm. The best quality semiinsulating (SI) 3” 6H-SiC substrates demonstrate micropipe density of 3 cm-2, and n-type 3” 4H-SiC substrates - about 1 cm-2. X-ray rocking curve topography of the produced 3” SiC substrates is used for evaluation of their crystal quality.

Development of High Performance AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors for RF Applications

GaN /AlGaN transistors are being developed for a variety of RF electronic and high temperature elctronics applications that will replace GaAs and Silicon devices and circuits for commercial and military applications. AlGaN/ GaN based HEMT device structure shows significant potential to meet these needs. In this paper, we present a GaN/AlGaN based HEMT design with modeling results, that includes AlN buffer layer followed by AlGaN layers on lattice matched semi-insulating SiC substrates. These devices were grown using RF Plasma Assisted MBE Technique. This approach has demonstrated very uniform epitaxial layers. Key to high quality HEMT structures is the ability to grow high quality AlN Buffer layers. Details of the electrical and optical characteristics of the HEMT layers and devices are presented and a short overview of semi-insulating SiC crystal growth is given.

Deep Traps in High-Purity Semi-Insulating 6H-SiC Substrates: Thermally Stimulated Current Spectroscopy

Thermally stimulated current spectroscopy (TSC) has been applied to characterize deep traps in high-purity semi-insulating 6H-SiC substrates. By using above bandgap to sub-bandgap light for illumination at 83 K and different applied biases, at least nine TSC traps in the temperature range of 80 to 400 K can be consistently observed. It is found that TSC peaks for T < 130 K are significantly affected by light and some peaks are strongly enhanced by the applied bias. Measured trap activation energies range from 0.15 eV to 0.76 eV. Theoretical fittings of selected traps give more accurate trap parameters. Based on literature results connected with deep traps in conductive 6H-SiC, the origin of these TSC traps is discussed.

Growth of Undoped (Vanadium-Free) Semi-Insulating 6H-SiC Single Crystals

II-VI has developed an Advanced PVT (APVT) process for the growth of nominally undoped (vanadium-free) semi-insulating 2” and 3” diameter 6H-SiC crystals with room temperature resistivity up to 1010 W·cm. The process utilizes high-purity SiC source and employs special measures aimed at the reduction of the impurity background. The APVT-grown material demonstrates concentrations of B and N reduced to about 2·1015cm-3. Wafer resistivity has been studied and correlated with Schottky barrier capacitance, yielding the density of deep compensating centers in 6H-SiC in the low 1015 cm-3 range for both ntype and p-type material. The nearly equal density of deep donors and deep acceptors ndicates that the centers responsible for the intrinsic compensation can be amphoteric. TheEPR density of spins from free carbon vacancies is about 1014 cm-3. It is also hypothesized that impurity-vacancy complexes can be present in the undoped material and participate in compensation.

Growth of Large Diameter 6H SI and 4H n+ SiC Single Crystals

SiC single crystals are grown at II-VI by the seeded sublimation technique. The process has been scaled up and optimized to support commercial production of high-quality 100 mm diameter, Semi-Insulating (SI) 6H substrates and 100 mm 4H n+ substrates. The growth process incorporates special elements aimed at achieving uniform sublimation of the source, steady growth rate, uniform doping and reduced presence of background impurities. Semi-insulating 6H substrates are produced using precise vanadium compensation. Vanadium doping is optimized to yield SI material with very high resistivity and low capacitance. Crystal quality of the substrates is evaluated using a wide variety of techniques. Specific defects, their interaction and evolution during growth are described with emphasis on micropipes and dislocations. The current quality of the 6H SI and 4H n+ crystals grown at II-VI is summarized.

Growth of Large Diameter SiC Crystals by Advanced Physical Vapor Transport

Semi-insulating 6H SiC substrates, 2”, 3” and 100mm in diameter, and n+ 4H SiC substrates, 2” and 3” in diameter, are grown at II-VI using the Advanced Physical Vapor Transport (APVT) technique [1]. The process utilizes high-purity SiC source and employs special measures aimed at the reduction of background contamination. Semi-insulating properties are achieved by precise vanadium compensation, which yields substrates with stable and uniform electrical resistivity reaching ~ 1011 Ω-cm and higher. Conductive n+ 4H SiC crystals with the spatially uniform resistivity of 0.02 W-cm are grown using nitrogen doping. Crystal quality of the substrates, their electrical properties and low temperature photoluminescence are discussed.