High-Temperature Tolerant Automotive Switched-Reluctance Motor

Not Available Silicon Carbide (SiC) is an attractive material for use in high power and high temperature devices. We are proposing to develop novel growth systems and growth processes for the 2 wafer growth of SiC. Experiment and calculations performed have demonstrated that 250-300 degrees C is lost at each structural element (filament/susceptor, susceptor/wafer) located between the heater filament and SiC wafer in SiC reactors. These interfaces are responsible for high filament temperatures and, hence, low lifetimes, <100 hours. The ultimate solution for this problem is to eliminate all thermal interfaces in the SiC reactor design. An innovative design is proposed by combining the wafer carrier and filament in one element so that the filament, susceptor and wafer are all at the same temperature. The growth process will focus on 4H SiC films grown on SiC for electronic applications. These new processes will take advantage of the innovative features of our growth reactor. Various electrical, structural and chemical charaterization techniques will be employed in order to demonstrate the advantages of the new design. This program will result in the innovative development of growth technology, deposition process and a cheap, reliable, SiC reactor system that will be widely available through a commercial vendor.