Characteristics of polycrystalline 3C-SiC thin films grown with carrier gas for extreme environment microelectronics

This paper presents the growth conditions and characteristics of polycrystalline 3C-SiC thin films for extreme environment microelectronics and MEMS. The growth of the polycrystalline 3C-SiC thin film on oxided Si wafers was carried out by using atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) with a single-precursor of hexamethyldisilane (HMDS: Si₂(CH₃)₆). This work was done for deposition conditions; the growth temperature and the HMDS flow rate were adjusted from 1000 to 1200degC and from 6 to 8 sccm, respectively. The effect of H₂ carrier gas addition was also evaluated to reduce to surface roughness and increase mechanical properties. From these results, the optimal growth conditions for the poly-crystalline 3C-SiC thin film were a deposition temperature of 1100degC, a HMDS flow rate of 8 sccm, and a H₂ flow rate of 100 sccm. The grown polycrystalline 3C-SiC films had very good crystal quality without twins, defects, and dislocations.