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Effect of H 2 O 2 in passivation of n‐ and p‐type 4H‐SiC surfaces
Author(s) -
Palmieri Rodrigo,
Radtke Cláudio,
Boudinov Henri,
da Silva Jr Eronides F.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201100589
Subject(s) - x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , materials science , silicon carbide , oxidizing agent , microelectronics , passivation , silicon , oxide , thermal oxidation , carbide , analytical chemistry (journal) , layer (electronics) , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , composite material , chemistry , metallurgy , organic chemistry , engineering
Silicon carbide (SiC) presents many advantageous properties for electronic devices designed to work under extreme conditions such as high‐temperature (300–600 °C), high‐frequency, and high‐power. In addition, the formation of an insulating oxide layer (SiO 2 ) by thermal oxidation is an attractive property for the microelectronics industry. Nevertheless, large densities of interface states ( D it ) at the SiO 2 /SiC interface degrade electrical properties of the resulting structure. Such states are responsible for undesirable effects which hamper the development of SiC‐based devices. These electrically active defects are partially assigned to compounds named silicon oxycarbides (SiC x O y ), that must be passivated. In this work, SiO 2 was thermally grow on n‐ and p‐type 4H‐SiC using O 2 flux bubbled on hot hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), which is a strong oxidizing agent, and acts in SiC surface converting SiC x O y in SiO 2 . Resulting structures were electrically characterized, and differences in D it among n‐ and p‐type 4H‐SiC substrates were observed. To verify the H 2 O 2 effects on SiC surface composition, oxidations of SiC using 18 O as a marker were performed, followed by thermal treatment with H 2 O 2 . Samples underwent probing by nuclear reaction analysis and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Results shown a reduction in silicon oxycarbides induced by H 2 O 2 . Electrical and physico‐chemical data were related in order to explain differences among n‐ and p‐type samples.