Improvement of Minority Carrier Lifetime in Thick 4H-SiC Epi-layers by Multiple Thermal Oxidations and Anneals

Abstract

This paper details the development of a technique to improve the minority carrier lifetime of 4H-SiC thick (≥ 100 μm) n-type epitaxial layers through multiple thermal oxidations. A steady improvement in lifetime is seen with each oxidation step, improving from a starting ambipolar carrier lifetime of 1.09 µs to 11.2 µs after 4 oxidation steps and a high-temperature anneal. This multiple-oxidation lifetime enhancement technique is compared to a single high-temperature oxidation step, and a carbon implantation followed by a high-temperature anneal, which are traditional ways to achieve high ambipolar lifetime in 4H-SiC n-type epilayers. The multiple oxidation treatment resulted in a high minimum carrier lifetime of 6 µs, compared to < 2 µs for other treatments. The implications of lifetime enhancement to high-voltage/high-current 4H-SiC power devices are also discussed.