Silicon dioxide and aluminium nitride as gate dielectric for high temperature and high power silicon carbide MOSFETs

Abstract: Silicon carbide (SIC) is a wide bandgap semiconductor thathas been suggested as a replacement for silicon in applicationsusing high voltages, high frequencies, high temperatures orcombinations thereof. Several basic process steps need to bedeveloped for reliable manufacturing of long-term stableelectronic devices. One important process step is the formationof an insulator on the silicon carbide surface that may be usedas a) a gate dielectric, b) for device isolation or c) forpassivation of the surface. Silicon dioxide and aluminumnitride have been suggested for these purposes. This thesiscovers the investigation of some formation methods for boththese materials on 4H and 6H silicon carbide, and theelectrical characterisation of the resulting films.Commercially available n-type and p-type 4H and 6H SICwafers have been used, and both the silicon face and the carbonface have been investigated. Silicon dioxide has been formed byseveral methods: a) dry thermal oxidation with or without theaddition of TCA (trichloroethane), b) wet oxidation inpyrogenic steam or with awater bubbler, c) oxide deposition byPECVD (plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) or LPCVD (lowpressure chemical vapor deposition) and d) oxidation of aevaporated or LPCVD deposited sacrificial layer of silicon. Theinfluence of various cleaning methods prior to oxidation hasbeen studied, as well as post-oxidation and post-metallisationannealing. The aluminum nitride films were grown by MOCVD(metal organic chemical vapor deposition) under various processconditions.Oxidation kinetics have been studied for dry thermaloxidation at 1200 0C. The redistribution of aluminum (p-typedopant in SiC) during dry thermal oxidation has beeninvestigated using SIMS (secondary ion mass spectrometry). Themorphology of the aluminum nitride was determined using x-raydiffraction rocking curves, RHEED (reflection high energyelectron diffraction) and AFM (atomic force microscopy). Thequality of the silicon dioxide used as gate dielectric has beendetermined using breakdown field measurements. High frequencycapacitance-voltage measurements have been used on bothinsulators to a) verify thickness measurements made with othermethods, b) to determine fixed oxide charges by measuring theflatband voltage shifts and c) to quantitatively compare theamount of interface states.For electrical characterisation either aluminum, titanium ordoped polysilicon circular gate contacts of various sizes wereformed on the insulator surface. Flat MOS capacitors weremainly used for the electrical characterisation. U-grooved MOScapacitors, manufactured by RIE (reactive ion etching), wereused to test the quality of oxides grown on vertical surfaces.Two types of MOSFETs (metal oxide semiconductor field effecttransistors) have been fabricated: vertical U-grooved andlateral devices.Keywords:silicon carbide, thermal oxidation, silicondioxide, metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD),aluminum nitride, capacitance-voltage measurements, MOSFET.