Developing next generation cleanroom processing technologies for Silicon Carbide power electronic devices

Supervisor: Dr Vishal Shah. Students must have a minimum Bachelors degree of 2.1 (UK) or international equivalent qualifications and a degree in experimental engineering/chemistry/physics.

Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor materials such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) have recently been introduced into the power electronics market in the last 5 years, with early adoption of SiC devices in hybrid and fully electric cars as the main driver of industrial uptake. Predictions state that the power market will be worth $43bn by 2030 with direct relevance to achieving the green energy adoption for many governments’ net zero carbon emissions commitment. A major argument for the adoption of SiC device manufacturing is the ability to use existing mature fabrication processes for Silicon device fabrication.

However, a major challenge is that SiC’s newly recent uptake has not allowed some of these transferred processes to be investigated in detail, with a view on how it affects the device performance or reliability. The importance here is that SiC is a “harsh environment” material – it takes a lot of energy to fabricate important components like MOS layers, ohmic contacts or Schottky contacts. Things like mesa etching, oxide growth or dopant activation are fundamentally very different and requires radical new approaches to improve the device technology.

In this studentship, the student will develop semiconductor processes for SiC power electronics and combine this with both electrical and materials characterisation. The student will learn, implement and develop fabrication techniques within the NanoFab-RTP cleanroom with physical characterisation (e.g. XPS, XRD, electron microscopy or spectroscopy). Then they will evaluate these processes in electrical characterisation to evaluate these new fabrication technologies for use in SiC power device technology.

Applications are open and rolling throughout the year, contact Dr Shah in the first instance ([email protected]).