Title: Diamond and silicon carbide thin films: present status and potential as wide band gap semiconducting materials

Authors: Robert F. Davis

Addresses: North Carolina State University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Raleigh, NC 27695 7907, USA

Abstract: The extreme thermal and electronic properties of diamond and of silicon carbide provide multiplicative combinations of attributes which lead to the highest figures of merit for any semiconductor materials for possible use in high-power, high-speed, high- temperature and high-frequency applications. The deposition of monocrystalline diamond. at or below 1 atm total pressure and at a temperature T < 1273 K has been achieved on diamond substrates; the deposited film has been polycrystalline on all other substrates but the achievement is no less significant. For electronic applications, heteroepitaxy of single-crystal films of diamond, an understanding of mechanisms of nucleation and growth methods of impurity introduction and activation, and further device development must be achieved. By contrast, all of these problems have already been solved for silicon carbide, including the operation of a MOSFET at 923 K – the highest operating temperature ever reported for a field-effect device. However, considerable research remains to be done regarding the development of large silicon carbide substrates of ohmic and rectifying contacts, of new types of devices, and of low temperature techniques for the deposition of insulating layers. Fugitive donor and acceptor species in unintentionally doped samples must also be identified and controlled.

Keywords: diamond thin films; electronic devices; semiconductors; silicon carbide thin films; semiconductor materials.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.1989.036725

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 1989 Vol.4 No.2, pp.81 - 103

Published online: 06 Nov 2010 *

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