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

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 r...