A silicon carbide MEMS microhotplate for nanomaterial characterization in TEM

We report a SiC MEMS microhotplate designed for high temperature characterization of nanomaterials in transmission electron microscopes (TEMs). The microhotplate integrates, for the first time, a microheater of doped polycrystalline silicon carbide (poly-SiC) and electron-transparent windows of amorphous SiC (a-SiC_x) on a freestanding membrane of undoped poly-SiC. Our work focuses on the development of the SiC layers by LPCVD, as well as on their combination in the fabrication process. The microhotplates were demonstrated to operate at temperatures well beyond 700°C.