Effects of High-Temperature Treatments in Inert Atmosphere on 4H-SiC Substrates and Epitaxial Layers

Silicon carbide is a wide-bandgap semiconductor useful in a new class of power devices in the emerging area of high-temperature and high-voltage electronics. The diffusion of SiC devices is strictly related to the growth of high-quality substrates and epitaxial layers involving high-temperature treatment processing. In this work, we studied the thermal stability of substrates of 4H-SiC in an inert atmosphere in the range 1600-2000 °C. Micro-Raman spectroscopy characterization revealed that the thermal treatments induced inhomogeneity in the wafer surface related to a graphitization process starting from 1650 °C. It was also found that the graphitization influences the epitaxial layer successively grown on the wafer substrate, and in particular, by time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy it was found that graphitization-induced defectiveness is responsible for the reduction of the carrier recombination lifetime.