Characterization of Silicon Carbide Thin Films Obtained Via Sublimation of a Solid Polymer Source Using Polymer-Source C
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0989-A05-05
Characterization of Silicon Carbide Thin Films Obtained Via Sublimation of a Solid Polymer Source using Polymer-Source CVD Process El Hassane Oulachgar1, Cetin Aktik1, Starr Dostie2, Subhash Gujrathi3, and Mihai Scarlete2 1 Nanofabrication and Nanocharacterization Research Center (CRN2), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sherbrooke University, Sherbrooke, J1K 2R1, Canada 2 Department of Chemistry, Bishop's University, Sherbrooke, J1M 0C8, Canada 3 Thin Film Physics and Technology Research Center (GCM), Department of Physics, Montreal University, Montreal, H3C 3J7, Canada ABSTRACT Silicon carbide thin films have been deposited via sublimation of a solid organosilane polymer source using atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition process (PS-CVD). The advantages of this new process include high deposition rate, compatibility with batch process, hazard-free working environment and low deposition cost. The silicon carbide (SiC) thin films obtained through this process exhibit a highly uniform film thickness, highly conformal coating, and very high chemical resistance to acids and alkaline solutions. These characteristics make the SiC thin films obtained by PSCVD process very attractive as a structural material for microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and as a coating film in a wide range of other applications. These SiC thin films are also expected to be attractive as a semiconductor material provided that the defects, oxygen and nitrogen contaminations can be reduced and effectively controlled. In this work we have investigated the chemical, structural, electrical and optical properties of these films, using scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), elastic recoil detection spectroscopy (ERD), ultraviolet-visible photospectroscopy (UV-Vis), ellipsometry, and capacitance-voltage measurements (C-V). INTRODUCTION Thin films of silicon carbide have been intensively investigated as an alternative to crystalline silicon carbide mainly because of their low preparation cost, simple processing and easy integration with other thin film materials. Nowadays they are commonly used in a wide range of semiconductor devices including window layer for solar cells [1], rectifying diode [2], photo-detector [3], MEMS pressure sensor [4], surface coating [5], membrane for X-ray lithography [6] and a variety of other applications. Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) process has been widely used in semiconductor industry for several decades and it is commonly used to prepare both crystalline and amorphous thin films of silicon carbide [7-12]. However, high quality single crystal silicon carbide are usually obtained with this process at very high temperature. In recent years, thin film of 3C-SiC epitaxially grown on silicon at a relatively low temperature (800 oC -1300 oC) are being widely investigated as a promising alternative to bulk crystalline silicon carbide [8, 12]. However these films can only be grown on silicon wafer and a carbonisation process is always req
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