STUDY OF THE POSSIBILITY OF POLYTYPE 3C SILICON CARBIDE BULK CRYSTALS GROWING FOR USE IN POWER DEVICES

Abstract

Due to its electro-physical parameters, the silicon carbide is a promising material for power devices, including the microwave range. In recent years there has been considerable progress in the development of power devices, based on SiC. Serious problem, which hinders the widespread commercialization of SiC bipolar power devices, is the p-n structures degradation during high densities of passing forward current. In 1981 the blue SiC LED's emission spectrum over time degradation was detected. Later, after the creation of power rectifier diodes, based on SiC, it was found that their characteristics are also deteriorated with increase of operating time. It was found that the cause of degradation are the so-called "Stacking Faults" (SF) -i.e., the formation of cubic SiC layers inside the hexagonal SiC diodes during direct current flow through them. However, it is easy to assume that this degradation mechanism is absent in devices, completely based on cubic polytype 3C-SiC. This study is dedicated to the study of possibility of creating device heterostructures based on 3C-SiC. It is shown that the heterojunction between SiC polytypes may be more structurally perfect than heterojunctions between semiconductors with different chemical nature. The conclusion on perspectivity of SiC-based heterostructures application in modern electronic devices is made.