Awards

2005年 SSDM Award

Dr. Kentaro Shibahara received the 2005 SSDM Award, together with Professor Emeritus
Hiroyuki Matsunami and co-authors, for the realization of step-controlled epitaxy¹.

Award-winning paper

“Step-Controlled VPE Growth of SiC Single Crystals at Low Temperatures“
SSDM 1987 · DOI: 10.7567/SSDM.1987.C-4-2
Read the full extended abstract

Significance

By introducing an off-axis angle to the 6H-SiC(0001) substrate, Dr. Shibahara and his
colleagues achieved the first homoepitaxial growth of high-quality 6H-SiC. This work,
named step-controlled epitaxy, was the starting point for the practical realization of
today’s SiC power devices and is regarded as a major milestone in the field.

The work built on their earlier research on 3C-SiC growth on off-axis Si(100)
substrates and the suppression of antiphase domains (APDs)² .

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1. Step-controlled epitaxy (also called step-controlled epitaxial growth) is a method
   for growing low-defect, mirror-smooth SiC single-crystal thin films on a substrate. It
   is a fundamental technology for manufacturing high-performance SiC power devices, which
   require high breakdown voltage and low loss, and it contributed greatly to the practical
   realization of SiC power semiconductors. ↩︎
2. The introduction of the award-winning paper (Extended Abstract) states:
   “Recently, we found that off orientation of Si(100) substrates was effective to
   eliminate antiphase domains. […] Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of both 3C
   and 6H-SiC on 6H-SiC substrates was reported by several authors, but no one mentioned
   clearly about the effect of the off orientation of the substrate.”
   Earlier work by the authors cited there includes:
   K. Shibahara, S. Nishino, and H. Matsunami, “Surface-morphology of cubic SiC(100)
   grown on Si(100) by chemical vapor deposition,” J. Crystal Growth 78 (1986) 538–544.
   DOI: 10.1016/0022-0248(86)90158-2
   K. Shibahara, S. Nishino, and H. Matsunami, “Antiphase-domain-free growth of cubic
   SiC on Si(100),” Appl. Phys. Lett. 50 (1987) 1888–1890. DOI: 10.1063/1.97676
   K. Shibahara, T. Saito, S. Nishino, and H. Matsunami, “Inversion-type N-channel
   MOSFET Using Antiphase-domain Free Cubic-SiC Grown on Si(100),” Extended Abstracts of
   the 18th International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials (SSDM 1986),
   Tokyo, pp. 717–718, 1986. ↩︎