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Growth of Epitaxial γ-Al2O3 Dielectrics on 4H-SiC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Carey M. Tanner ,
Jun Lu ,
Hans-Olof Blom  and
Jane P. Chang
Carey M. Tanner
Affiliation:
ctanner@ucla.edu, University of California, Los Angeles, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 420 Westwood Plaza, 1667 Boelter Hall, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States, 310-794-4763, 310-206-4107
Jun Lu
Affiliation:
Jun.Lu@angstrom.uu.se, Uppsala University, Uppsala, N/A, N/A, Sweden
Hans-Olof Blom
Affiliation:
Hans-Olof.Blom@angstrom.uu.se, Uppsala University, Uppsala, N/A, N/A, Sweden
Jane P. Chang
Affiliation:
jpchang@seas.ucla.edu, University of California, Los Angeles, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
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Abstract

Highly oriented ?-Al2O3 thin films on 4H-SiC were engineered to demonstrate their potential as a crystalline high-k gate dielectric in SiC power MOSFETs. As-deposited Al2O3 thin films grown on 4H-SiC (0001) by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) were amorphous as determined by in-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED). Upon annealing in N2 at 1100°C, the film crystallized to the ?-Al2O3 phase as observed by RHEED, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Based on Fourier transforms of the HRTEM image, an epitaxial relationship of ?-Al2O3 (111) on 4H-SiC (0001) was observed in which ?-Al2O3 (-110) is oriented with 4H-SiC (-12-10). This orientation was further confirmed by XRD analysis in which only the ?-Al2O3 (111) and (222) peaks were observed. An abrupt interface of both amorphous and crystalline Al2O3 with 4H-SiC was determined by HRTEM.

Keywords

dielectricepitaxyatomic layer deposition
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 911: Symposium B – Silicon Carbide 2006 – Materials, Processing and Devices , 2006 , 0911-B10-06
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

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