Progress in Polycrystalline SiC Growth by Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition and Material Characterization

The purpose of this paper is to give a review on the state of the art of polycrystalline SiC material grown by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). Nowadays, LPCVD is the main technique used for the deposition of polycrystalline SiC, both in academic research and industry. Indeed, the LPCVD technique is today the most mature technique to grow high purity polycrystalline thin films with controlled thickness and structure over a large area (>50 cm) and/or 3D substrate. Its ability to have a high degree of modification on the growth conditions and the chosen precursor system allows the deposition of polycrystalline SiC films in various substrates with tailored properties according to the desired application. After a short introduction on the SiC material and its growth by the LPCVD technique, a review of theoretical studies (thermodynamics and kinetics) related to the CVD SiC growth process is given. A synthesis of the experimental studies is made focusing on the effect of the growth conditions on the properties of the deposited SiC polycrystalline material. Despite the numerous results, a full understanding of them is limited due to the complexity of the LPCVD process and the polycrystalline SiC structure. The conclusions show that the growth conditions, like temperature, chamber pressure, (C/Si)_(g), (Cl/Si)_(g), and doping have an impact on the microstructure and on the corresponding properties of the polycrystalline SiC films. Future perspectives are given in order to improve our understanding on the polycrystalline-SiC-LPCVD process and to enable the growth of tailor-made polycrystalline SiC films for future applications.