Single-Crystalline 3C-SiC anodically Bonded onto Glass: An Excellent Platform for High-Temperature Electronics and Bioapplications

5 years ago

Single-Crystalline 3C-SiC anodically Bonded onto Glass: An Excellent Platform for High-Temperature Electronics and Bioapplications

Tadatomo Suga, Harshad Kamble, Hoang-Phuong Phan, Mirko Lobino, Han-Hao Cheng, Alan Iacopi, Barry Wood, Toan Dinh, Nam-Trung Nguyen, Glenn Walker, Dzung Viet Dao, Leonie Hold, Raja Vadivelu, Fengwen Mu, Ben Haylock, Tuan-Khoa Nguyen

Single-crystal cubic silicon carbide has attracted great attention for MEMS and electronic devices. However, current leakage at the SiC/Si junction at high temperatures and visible-light absorption of the Si substrate are main obstacles hindering the use of the platform in a broad range of applications. To solve these bottlenecks, we present a new platform of single crystal SiC on an electrically insulating and transparent substrate using an anodic bonding process. The SiC thin film was prepared on a 150 mm Si with a surface roughness of 7 nm using LPCVD. The SiC/Si wafer was bonded to a glass substrate and then the Si layer was completely removed through wafer polishing and wet etching. The bonded SiC/glass samples show a sharp bonding interface of less than 15 nm characterized using deep profile X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, a strong bonding strength of approximately 20 MPa measured from the pulling test, and relatively high optical transparency in the visible range. The transferred SiC film also exhibited good conductivity and a relatively high temperature coefficient of resistance varying from −12 000 to −20 000 ppm/K, which is desirable for thermal sensors. The biocompatibility of SiC/glass was also confirmed through mouse 3T3 fibroblasts cell-culturing experiments. Taking advantage of the superior electrical properties and biocompatibility of SiC, the developed SiC-on-glass platform offers unprecedented potentials for high-temperature electronics as well as bioapplications.

Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b06661

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b06661