Growth and characterization of SiC layers obtained by microwave-CVD

Silicon carbide is a wide band gap semiconductor of interest for its application in many electronic devices. In recent years, a large research activity has been devoted to growth techniques for amorphous, polycrystalline or even epitaxial structures. In this paper, we have reported results on microcrystalline and polycrystalline SiC layers grown by high temperature ECR-CVD over 4" (100) silicon wafer in SiH(4) + CH(4) gas mixtures. The structure of the films has been investigated by X-ray diffractometry, micro-Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Stoichiometric SiC films containing a complete chemical order, 3C-SiC crystals with orientation close to that of Si substrate and lateral dimensions larger than 100 nm have been obtained. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.