A recent study in surface preparation of silicon carbide (SiC)

For any semiconductor material, the fabrication of electronic devices that take the full advantage of the material physical properties requires a perfect control of all technological steps. In an effort to improve silicon carbide (SIC) substrates surfaces prior to epitaxial growth, two chemo mechanical polishing (CMP) techniques were investigated. The results are compared with a mechanical polishing procedure involving various grades of diamond paste. The goal of the present contribution is to recapitulate the important progresses made during past few years in the field of surface preparation of wide band gap materials. We voluntarily focus on our results, which spread out along two main axes. The first is the extension of the Si- face know- how to other types of SiC surfaces and to other wide band gap materials. The second axis concerns the polishing and planarization of epitaxial layers. The industrial implementation of polishing processes and perspectives for future developments is also discussed.