Development of new combined polishing process for single crystal silicon carbide

Abstract

Single crystal silicon carbide is a next-generation material for power devices, because these devices have higher breakdown voltages and operating temperatures. On the other hand, SiC is difficult to machine because of its high hardness. This paper proposes a combined polishing technology that generates relatively lower hardness material with UV irradiation and/or electrochemical process, and mechanically removes the material with abrasive grains. The hardness of the grains is higher than that of the generated material and lower than that of SiC. The SiC polishing experiment is carried out with the combined process. The polishing speed is from 10 to 50 times higher than the speed of the conventional CMP process.