Homoepitaxial Growth of 4H-SiC on Vicinal Substrates

This chapter summarizes and explains the key factors in the development of 4H-SiC homoepitaxial growth and defect engineering. It will be shown that 4H-SiC homoepitaxy is a mature technology today, based on step-flow growth on vicinal substrates in a CVD process, providing epilayers of high structural quality. Still, extended defects like such as e.g. dislocations, stacking faults, and complexes thereof as well as point defects are relevant for device performance and device production yield. This chapter classifies defects, explains their nature and occurrence, provides adequate strategies for defect avoidance, and introduces pertinent characterization methods for such defects. Special attention is paid to the physical properties of point defects and their impact on minority carrier lifetimes.