A Novel Approach for the Growth of Semi-Insulating Silicon Carbide

The development of a process to produce semi-insulating (SI) silicon carbide (SiC) boules with improved yields will significantly reduce the cost of wafers and thus accelerate the rapid commercialization of SI SiC for microwave and RF system applications.The objective of this Phase II project is to improve and perfect the process development of a radically new approach for the synthesis of high purity SiC source material that can solve many of the problems inherent to the boule growth of SI SiC using theconventional compensation method. In Phase I, the feasibility of a novel SiC source synthesis method and its applicability for the growth of high resistivity SiC (background doping concentration of <10^4 per cc) boules was demonstrated. In Phase II, thesource material synthesis process will be optimized for cost effectiveness, yield, and purity - especially a reduction in metallic impurities. In Phase II, the synthesized high purity source material will be used to demonstrate the growth of SI SiCboules, 50mm in diameter. With the proposed approach, three specific advantages are anticipated: (a) the high yield of the synthesis process is expected to result in low cost of the pure source material, (b) the high purity source material will produceboules whose characteristics are more uniform over their volume, (c) higher wafer yield and reduced cost of SI SiC wafers, which stimulates the widespread commercialization of the material for microwave and RF system applications.