Thermal stability of dry etch damage in SiC

The introduction of dry etch damage into n-type SiC has been measured by monitoring the sheet resistance after exposure to Ar plasmas under both reactive ion etching and electron cyclotron resonance conditions. The threshold rf powers for measurable resistance changes in 1 μm thick films are ∼250 W for reactive ion etching (RIE) conditions, and ∼150 W for electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) conditions. A major annealing stage occurs with an activation energy of ∼3.4 eV, but some damage remains even after 1050 °C annealing.