Product Overview

The foundation of Widetronix is deposition of epitaxial layers onto SiC substrates, a key process that provides appropriate material conductivity for device fabrication. SiC substrates prepared using off-axis cuts from a boul 4° to 8°, while acceptable for many device applications, exhibit defects (i.e., basal plane dislocations) that prevent their use in UHV applications. Wafer substrates prepared with on-axis cuts from a boul at <1° do not exhibit these same defects, but manufacturers have been unable to properly scale an epitaxial deposition process that meets SiC device requirements.

Widetronix is optimizing a chlorine assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process for growing epitaxial layers onto on-axis SiC substrates with low doping (1-3x10¹⁴ cm^-3). Our patented growth process produces on-axis epitaxial layers at growth rates of 10-40 µm/hour, which has the capability to produce greater than 100µm thick layers in a typical workday. This level of epitaxial thickness defines the threshold at which SiC become effective at blocking greater than 10kV necessary for UHV devices.