3C-SiC is a material which has potential as a replacement for 4H-SiC, due to its ability to be epitaxially grown on cheaper Silicon substrates, whilst having better largely reducing material costs. Furthermore compared to 4H-SiC, 3C-SiC has a potential larger mobility and a the larger conduction band offset at the 3C-SiC/SiO2 interface theoretically enables MOS devices to have considerably lower leakage currents and interfacial charge levels than unipolar MOS devices fabricated on 4H-SiC.

However, the large mismatch in physical, thermal and crystallographic properties between 3C-SiC and the underlying Si substrate hampers the development of this material due to the larger defect levels in the material. Even though high mobility 3C-SiC MOSFETs have been reported in the past decade, in-depth studies of 3C-SiC MOS devices still show high leakage levels and positive charge at the 3C-SiC/SiO2 interface.

There are two projects in this area:

1. New processing techniques will be developed at Warwick to address these materials issues and will be implemented in a 3C-SiC power electronics device.

2. The student will develop SiC materials and fabrication methodologies to contribute to micro electronic mechanical systems (MEMS) structures for power devices and sensors

Applications are open and rolling throughout the year, contact Dr Shah in the first instance (vishal.shah@warwick.ac.uk).