Granted Patent B2

US 12,725,240 · App. 18/250,710 · Granted Sep 1, 2026

Inventors: Tadaaki Kaneko (Sanda, JP); Daichi Dojima (Sanda, JP)

Assignees: KWANSEI GAKUIN EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION; TOYOTA TSUSHO CORPORATION

G06T7/0004H10P14/2904H10P14/2926H10P50/00G06T2207/30148

Abstract

Claims (19)

1 . A method for evaluating a heat treatment environment, the method comprising:

a heat treatment step of heat treating a silicon carbide substrate in a heat treatment container including polycrystal SiC;

an image acquisition step of acquiring an image by making an electron beam incident at an incident angle inclined with respect to a normal line of a {0001} plane of the heat-treated silicon carbide substrate; and

an environment evaluation step of evaluating a heat treatment environment of the silicon carbide substrate on a basis of contrast information of the image,

wherein the image acquisition step is a step of making the electron beam incident on the silicon carbide substrate, the electron beam being inclined to the <1-100> direction, and

wherein the environment evaluation step is a step of evaluating that the heat treatment environment is a Si—SiC equilibrium vapor pressure environment or a C—SiC equilibrium vapor pressure environment.

2 . The method for evaluating a heat treatment environment according to claim 1 , wherein the environment evaluation step is a step of evaluating the contrast information appearing on a terrace.

3 . The method for evaluating a heat treatment environment according to claim 1 , wherein the environment evaluation step is a step of evaluating the contrast information appearing along a <1-100> direction.

4 . The method for evaluating a heat treatment environment according to claim 1 , wherein the contrast information includes a plurality of pieces of brightness information reflecting a stacking direction of atoms, and

the environment evaluation step includes a brightness comparison step of comparing the plurality of pieces of brightness information.

5 . The method for evaluating a heat treatment environment according to claim 1 , wherein the contrast information includes first brightness information reflecting the stacking direction of atoms and second brightness information capable of being compared with the first brightness information, and

the environment evaluation step includes the brightness comparison step of comparing the first brightness information with the second brightness information.

6 . The method for evaluating a heat treatment environment according to claim 1 , wherein the silicon carbide substrate has a hexagonal crystal structure.

7 . The method for evaluating a heat treatment environment according to claim 1 , the method comprising a heat treatment step of forming a step-terrace structure by heat-treating the silicon carbide substrate in the heat treatment environment.

8 . The method for evaluating a heat treatment environment according to claim 1 , wherein the silicon carbide substrate includes a step formation portion that serves as a generation source of a step during heat treatment, and an environment evaluation area where the step-terrace structure resulting from the step formation portion is formed, and

the environment evaluation step is a step of evaluating the environment evaluation area.

9 . The method for evaluating a heat treatment environment according to claim 8 , wherein the step formation portion is a threading dislocation.

10 . The method for evaluating a heat treatment environment according to claim 8 , wherein the step formation portion is a machined hole.

11 . The method for evaluating a heat treatment environment according to claim 8 , wherein the environment evaluation area is a machined recess.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (16)