Challenges in Large-Area Multi-Wafer SiC Epitaxy for Production Needs

The rapid market development for SiC-devices during the last years can be attributed particularly to the success in supplying high-quality SiC wafers and corresponding epitaxial layers. The device quality could be enhanced and the costs were reduced by enlarging the wafer size as well as by a significant progress in epitaxial growth of active layers by using multi-wafer CVD systems. In this paper we want to give an overview of CVD multi-wafer systems used for SiC growth in the past and today. We present recent results of SiC homoepitaxial growth using our multi-wafer hot-wall CVD system. This equipment exhibits a capacity of 5×3” wafers per run and can be upgraded to a 7×3” or 5×4” setup. By optimizing the process conditions epitaxial layers with excellent crystal quality, purity and homogeneity of doping and thickness have been grown. Issues like reproducibility, drift of parameters and system stability over several runs will be discussed.