Silicon carbide (SiC) offers great promise in the future for high power, high voltage, high temperature, high frequency and high radiation environment device applications. However, the growth of SiC material that is free of crystallographic defects and suitable for device manufacturing is limiting the wide scale production of such devices. Apart from the challenges of growing high quality bulk material, thick homoepitaxial layers with very low defect densities and good electronic properties are needed for fabricating high-voltage devices. The work presented in this thesis will discuss conventional SiC growth techniques such as physical vapor transport (PVT) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) as well as a new growth technique known as high temperature chemical vapor deposition (HTCVD).

The CVD method has been used for more than a decade for growing high quality epitaxial films of SiC. However, the growth rate of this method remains relatively low (10 – 25 µm/hr), considering that the thickness of a SiC epitaxial layer needed for a high-voltage (10 KV) rectifier device is more than 100 µm. This demands a growth technique with a higher growth rate for cost effective production of high power SiC devices. The HTCVD technique has been demonstrated by other research groups as a means of growing high quality epitaxial films at growth rates exceeding 100 µm/hr. This method has also been reported as a means of growing high quality bulk SiC material. For these reasons, it was proposed that a new furnace be constructed for our research group with the capabilities of performing the HTCVD method.

The majority of the work for this thesis was related to the construction and testing of an in house built HTCVD furnace. The construction of the growth chamber, gas delivery system and control system are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the preliminary results of the furnace capabilities, including conventional CVD and PVT growth are demonstrated. A growth rate of 18 µm/hr has been achieved at 1650 ºC and the potential for higher growth rates at higher temperatures appears promising. The current results and suggestions for future work in optimization of various parameters are further discussed.