Fabricating SiC-On-Insulator Complaint Substrates

Materials and Technologies Corp. (M&T) proposes an effort to show feasibility and provide initial characterization of a new method to produce large area SiC-on-insulator (SICOI) compliant substrates for low defect lattice matched wide bandgap semiconductor growth. There is currently no effective approach to fabricate large area, high quality, compliant SiC substrates of the required thickness and low defect concentrations(>l000 cm2). Current techniques result in relatively low quality films and are limited by the minimum attainable Si thickness or limited to small areas. M&T will extend its proprietary growth and fabrication technologies to develop a process by which a thin film (>10 nm) can be deposited onto a silicon oxide underlayer (few hundred nm). M&T's process involves the growth of its single-crystal beta-SiC of the desired thickness and its transfer onto the oxide/Si substrate. The interface between the transferred film and its underlying oxide is sharp and stable. This process is expected to provide a cost-effective approach to the mass fabrication of SICOI substrates, in turn enabling the development of new materials and devices. Subsequent Phase II and III efforts will further develop the process and bring it into full manufacturability.