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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
The growth of SiC epilayers by atmospheric pressure CVD (AP-CVD) is influenced by many chemical gas phase reactions and transport phenomena, and is difficult to study directly due to the high growth temperatures (up to 2100 K). To grow epilayers of good quality, it is necessary to control the silicon and carbon supply, each affected by different mechanisms. The use of graphite as the susceptor material causes a remarkable change in the carbon balance due to reactions between the graphite and the hydrogen carrier gas. This graphite-hydrogen reaction enriches the gas phase with carbon and above a certain critical temperature it is impossible to control the Si:C-ratio in the gas phase by a variation of the carbon containing input gas. The silicon supply is usually treated as transport through a stagnant layer in the gas phase determined by the transport properties of the carrier gas and the temperature gradient in the reactor. A numerical solution of the flow-equations in the reactor shows that the flow characteristics and temperature gradients in the reactor are hardly affected by the gas flow velocity.