Impact of annealing temperature on surface passivation of SiC epitaxial layers with deposited SiO2 followed by POCl3 annealing

Abstract

We investigate an impact of annealing temperature on surface passivation of SiC epitaxial layers with deposited SiO2 followed by POCl3 annealing. The POCl3 annealing process consists of two steps: (i) thermal annealing in POCl3 and (ii) subsequent thermal annealing in pure N2. We find that the annealing temperature of the subsequent N2 annealing is important to reduce surface recombination on SiC. For surface passivation, N2 annealing at high temperature at 1000° C is necessary.