Automated inspection tool to unveil defects in raw Silicon Carbide crystals.

Silicon Carbide (SiC) is emerging semiconductor crystal for high-power electronics.

There is great demand from Electric Vehicles and Power Generation industries for SiC devices that enable to operate at higher power, higher voltages, higher temperatures, and higher frequencies, compare to traditional silicon.

On top of it SiC wafers reduce energy loss at electric power control, contributing to the reduction of energy use and the environmental stress. Unfortunately high defectiveness of produced SiC crystals is a stumbling block in its wide-spread use in electronics.

Today defective volume in SiC crystals could reach 50%, and the defects are unveiled only after crystal processing, wafering and, in many cases, polishing wafers. This process is considerably costly because SiC is one of the hardest materials with hardness just below diamond.

This project is to develop an automated inspection tool to enable manufacturers to assess defectiveness of SiC crystals before they enter costly processing.

It will help semiconductor manufacturers to save resources on slicing and polishing initially defective crystals, and provide insight into the crystal quality to improve the growth process.I am PhD in Physics who studied Material science, crystal growth and characterisation.

The project will be carried out at the Swiss company Scientific Visual, that has developed quality inspection tools for other industrial crystals, and it is to expand its technology to Silicon Carbide.