Mechanistic model for oxidation of SiC

A mechanistic model for the oxidation of SiC is presented. The model explains the observed anisotropic oxidation rate of SiC in terms of the effect of weakening/strengthening of Si–C bonds arising from the on-going incorporation of highly electronegative oxygen atoms into the crystal lattice. A novel Monte Carlo based oxidation simulator, OXYSIM, is presented and used to explore the proposed SiC oxidation model. The extraction of key process metrics (such as oxide thickness, interface roughness and oxide defect density) is discussed.