SiC plasma etching technology processes for power and optoelectronic devices
Résumé
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a wide bandgap semiconductor material, intensively studied in the last decades in an attempt to substitute the silicon based semiconductors and improve their properties in power device electronics. The new generation of SiC-based power electronics for hybrid and full-electric auto-motives are today in demand as they have a higher efficiency, are lighter and compacter [1]. Many advantages of SiC come from its intrinsic physical properties, which are adequate to a high critical electric field strength, and an excellent thermal stability and conductivity. Also, a high hardness, resistance to corrosion and to radiation damage, are qualities that make SiC a promising candidate for a wide variety of applications, especially for the use under critical conditions, e.g., sensors for drilling, for spacecraft techniques, or wastewater monitoring. More recently, a new interest has been manifested for its potential in quantum technology, due to the so-called room temperature luminescent defects, also known as color centers, which are atomic defects in the lattice of SiC crystals that can emit photons with unique spectral signatures.
The strong hardness of silicon carbide involves a difficult technology in the manufacture of semiconductor devices but which has nevertheless reached a certain maturity today in power electronics. In the fabrication of these electronic devices in SiC, an important role is played by the plasma-based dry etching as classic wet approaches are not conceivable due to the SiC chemical inertness and the strong bonding between Si and C in SiC. Typically, fluorinated plasmas are used in ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) and RIE (Reactive Ion Etching) reactors to adapt SiC surfaces by eliminating areas of high electric field strength in power devices. Plasma etching is also used for quantum nanophotonics creating color centers resonators by localizing them in submicron pillar structures [2] or photonic crystal cavities [3]. Thanks to its high refractive index (2.65 at 590 nm) compared to air, the emitted light is totally reflected and stays trapped within the material. However, this can be seen as a disadvantage of SiC for optoelectronic applications that causes the low extraction efficiency of light of SiC. To enhance the light extraction of SiC, nanostructuring of the material’s surface can be done by various means to obtain an antireflection structure (ARS) and one of them is plasma etching [4]. Local nanostructuring of the SiC surface or roughening could be also utilized in order to increase the active detection surfaces for the different harsh environment sensors that can be fabricated with SiC technology.
In general, the reliability in power electronics is improved by integrating several power devices in the same chip, expecting to enhance the switching operation speed and decrease the power loses. To integrate several power devices in the same SiC chip, deep etching trenches are needed, in order to insulate them. And in the case of an integration of vertical devices (typical geometries for the high voltage components), etching via through the entire SiC substrate (several hundred of µm) are necessary. Deep etching is also necessary to contact layers in the device structures with electrodes on the top surface. Usually, to increase the breakdown voltage sustainability in power devices, mesa structures are also needed, the breaking voltage increasing with the etching depth of the trench.
Domaines
Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]Origine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
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