Low temperature SiC growth by metalorganic LPCVD on MBE carbonized Si (001) substrates

This work combines the advantages of two techniques, MBE and LPCVD, to grow epitaxial 3C-SiC films on 2 in. Si (001) wafers misoriented 2–4° towards [110]. For comparison, SiC was also deposited on bare Si (001) wafers. The LPCVD process was performed in a hot-wall quartz reactor at temperatures below 1200°C using an organometallic compound, tetramethylsilane, as a single precursor. The effect of the MBE buffer layer on the LPCVD SiC film quality has been investigated mainly by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The best LPCVD SiC films were achieved at 1170°C. These preliminary results show that the presence of the MBE carbonization layer improves the LPCVD subsequent growth. The LPCVD SiC layer is highly sensitive to the quality of the buffer layer.