Growing epitaxial 3C-SiC on single-crystal silicon
A method of growing epitaxial 3C-SiC on single-crystal silicon is disclosed. The method comprises providing a single-crystal silicon substrate in a cold-wall chemical vapour deposition reactor, heating the substrate to a temperature equal to or greater than 700° C. and equal to or less than 1200° C., introducing a gas mixture into the reactor while the substrate is at the temperature, the gas mixture comprising a silicon source precursor, a carbon source precursor and a carrier gas so as to deposit an epitaxial layer of 3C-SiC on the single-crystal silicon.
1. A method of growing epitaxial 3C-SiC on single-crystal silicon, the method comprising:
providing a single-crystal silicon substrate having a diameter of at least 100 mm in a cold-wall chemical vapor deposition reactor comprising a quartz chamber;
heating the substrate to a temperature equal to or greater than 700° C. and equal to or less than 1200° C. using external heaters comprising infra-red lamps;
introducing a gas mixture into the reactor while the substrate is at the temperature, the gas mixture comprising a silicon source precursor, a carbon source precursor which is different from the silicon source precursor and a carrier gas so as to deposit an epitaxial layer of 3C-SiC on the single-crystal silicon wherein the silicon source precursor ( 16 ) comprises a silane or a chlorine-containing silane and the carbon source precursor ( 18 ) is a methyl-containing silane, and the epitaxial layer of 3 C-SiC is grown continuously.
2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the carbon source precursor comprises trimethylsilane.
3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein flow rate of the carbon source precursor is at least 1 sccm.
4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein flow rate of the carbon source precursor is at least 10 sccm.
5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the silicon source precursor comprises a dichlorosilane.
6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the silicon source precursor comprises two or more different precursor components.
7. A method according to claim 1 , wherein flow rate of the silicon source precursor is at least 1 sccm.
8. A method according to claim 1 , wherein flow rate of the silicon source precursor is at least 10 sccm.
9. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the ratio of the flow rate of the carbon source precursor and the silicon source precursor is less than 1.2 and greater than 0.8.
10. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the flow rates of the carbon source precursor and the silicon source precursor is the same.
11. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the temperature, T, is equal to or greater than 1100° C.
12. A method according to claim 1 , wherein pressure in the reactor during deposition is equal to or greater than 66.7 Pa (0.5 Torr) and equal to or less than 26.7 kPa (200 Torr).
13. A method according to claim 1 , wherein pressure in the reactor during deposition is equal to or greater than 13.3 kPa (100 Torr).
14. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the single-crystal silicon has an (001) surface orientation.
15. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the single-crystal silicon substrate has a flat surface.
16. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the single-crystal silicon substrate comprises a single-crystal silicon wafer.
17. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the gas mixture excludes hydrogen chloride (HCl) gas.