The project is primarily devoted to deposition of amorphous, polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon carbide films by means of and low pressure chemical vapour deposition (LPCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), their doping during deposition and by ion implantation and fundamental investigations into those physical and optical effects which can be used for design and implementation of integrated microsystems. A further important subject involves the fabrication of high-temperature resistant contacts (up to 800 C) on n-and p-materials as well patterning of silicon carbide films by means of dry-etching methods.
Deposition of silicon carbide films using MBE and LPCVD was investigated. Deposition by MBE was performed using solid source MBE and gas source MBE. The different stages of film growth were investigated and special emphasis was laid on the initial growth phase, where film nucleation and growth under different growth conditions were analysed. Polycrystalline and amorphous silicon carbide films were grown by LPCVD. This technique when compared to other methods has the advantage of deposition over a large area. A thorough investigation of the silicon carbide film quality depending on different deposition parameters was performed in order to establish optimised film characteristics.
Processing technologies for silicon carbide are important as they provide test devices for the characterization of the silicon carbide material deposited and also lead to enabling technologies that are required for the design of prospective devices. Technological areas that have been successfully investigated include doping of silicon carbide films by high temperature implantation, electrical contacts to silicon carbide material and etching of silicon carbide films. Transducer effects like Hall effect, thermoresistive effect and piezoresistive effect were characterized. The gauge factors of the thin silicon carbide films were determined using the beam deflection technique. The piezoresistive effect was examined in relation to doping and temperature.