Effect of the thermal annealing on the electrical and physical properties of SiC thin films produced by RF magnetron sputtering

SiC thin films have been grown by magnetron sputtering process at RF powers in the range of 100 to 400 W followed or not by annealing in inert environment of ultrapure nitrogen at 1000 degrees C. Physical characterization by Raman and RBS analysis were performed. The Raman spectra have shown corresponding bands of SiC, Si and C for all the samples while RBS characterization showed a higher concentration of Si for higher RF powers. Unannealed and annealed SiC films were used to produce MIS structures. The electrical properties of these structures were analyzed from Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) and Conductance-Voltage (G-V) characteristics. The results showed that the significant leakage current in the accumulation region observed in the unannealed films can be drastically reduced by the annealing process. A model is proposed to account for this leakage process of the MIS structures. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.