Epitaxial growth of 3C-SiC on Si by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition

3C-SiC was grown on Si(100) substrates by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition using a C3H8-SiH4-H2 reaction gas system in the pressure range between 1.5 and 100 Torr. The dependences of the crystal structures, growth rates, thickness distributions, and electrical properties of the SiC layers on growth conditions were investigated. At low pressure, it was found that the thickness uniformity was improved, especially at 1.5 Torr compared to atmospheric pressure. The epitaxially grown 3C-SiC layers at 100 Torr have smooth surfaces and high crystalline quality and showed almost the same electrical properties as those of the epilayers by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition.