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This is the interior of one furnace that uses RF-heating. The coils induce current in a graphite susceptor to provide heat. Directly inside the coil there is a quartz tube that houses insulation, the susceptor, and the growth cell. |
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Bulk Growth Laboratory |
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The Bulk Growth Lab houses three PVT furnaces (physical vapor transport) for the growth of silicon carbide bulk material in the form of single crystal ingots. Each of these systems were custom built by researchers here at USC. Silicon carbide is more difficult to grow than a material like silicon because of the nature of the material. Silicon is grown by the Czochralski method which includes melting the silicon source material and using a seed crystal to draw the melt upward where it crystallizes into a silicon ingot. This method is not possible with silicon carbide. Physical Vapor Transport must be used for growth. SiC source material must be heated to around 2000°C at which point it begins to sublime. In the vapor phase, mass transport occurs to a seed crystal which grows into a SiC ingot. After the grown ingot is removed from the furnace, it must go to the bulk material processing facilities be made into useful wafers. |
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This is the interior of one furnace that uses RF-heating. The coils induce current in a graphite susceptor to provide heat. Directly inside the coil there is a quartz tube that houses insulation, the susceptor, and the growth cell. |
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