Single-crystal SiC is a typical third-generation semiconductor power-device material because of its excellent electronic and thermal properties. An ultrasmooth surface with atomic surface roughness that is scratch free and subsurface damage (SSD) free is indispensable before its application. As the last process to reduce the surface roughness and remove surface defects, precision polishing of single-crystal SiC is essential. In this paper, precision polishing technologies for 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC, which are the most commonly used polytypes of single-crystal SiC, such as chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), photocatalytic chemical mechanical polishing (PCMP), plasma-assisted polishing (PAP), electrochemical mechanical polishing (ECMP), and catalyst-referred etching (CARE), were reviewed and compared with emphasis on the experimental setup, polishing mechanism, material removal rate (MRR), and surface roughness. An atomically smooth surface without SSD can be obtained by CMP, PCMP, PAP, and CARE for single-crystal SiC. However, their MRRs are meager, and the waste treatment after CMP is difficult and expensive. Moreover, PAP’s operation is poor due to the complex polishing system, plasma generation, and irradiation devices. A high MRR can be achieved by ECMP. In addition, it is an environmentally friendly precision polishing process for single-crystal SiC since the neutral salt solution is generally used as the electrolyte in ECMP. However, the formation of the egglike protrusions at the oxide/SiC interface during anodic oxidation would lead to a bigger surface roughness after ECMP than that after PAP is processed. The HF solution used in CARE was toxic, and Pt was particularly expensive. Ultrasonic vibration-assisted single-crystal SiC polishing and electrolyte plasma polishing (EPP) were discussed; furthermore, the research direction of further improving the surface quality and MRR of single-crystal SiC was prospected.

In this paper, theoretical models of the critical indentation depth and critical force on brittle materials using cleavage strength and contact theory are proposed. A Berkovich indenter is adopted for nanoindentation tests on a 4H-SiC single crystal sample to evaluate its mechanical behaviors. The stages of brittle material deformation (elastic, plastic, and brittle) can be characterized by the load versus indentation depth curves through the nanoindentation test. The curve of the elastic deformation stage follows the Hertz contact theory, and plastic deformation occurs at an indentation depth of up to 10 nm. The mechanism of 4H-SiC single crystal cracking is discussed, and the critical indentation depth and critical force for the plastic–brittle transition are obtained through the occurrence of the pop-in point. This shows that the theoretical results have good coherence with the test results. Both the values of the elastic modulus and hardness decrease as the crack length increases. In order to obtain more accurate mechanical property values in the nanoindentation test for brittle materials such as SiC, GaN, and sapphire, an appropriate load that avoids surface cracks should be adopted.

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a hard-to-machine material due to its high hardness and chemical stability, and usually an essential step in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is to modify the SiC surface without introducing damage or other elements, then to polish the modified surface. For high quality and high efficiency surface modification of SiC, a green and promising oxidation approach named plasma electrochemical oxidation (PECO) is proposed. Experiments were conducted to investigate the oxidation mechanism of PECO to enable its application for CMP. The oxidized surface was detected by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), many atomic-scale protuberances were confirmed to be introduced in the PECO process. Through the analysis of energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), it is proved that the SiC surface has been oxidized into SiO₂ and a transition layer (silicon oxycarbide) is formed between SiO₂ and SiC. Based on the analysis of the cross section image of the oxidized layer, electrolyte–SiC interface chemical reaction and oxidation layer formation mechanism are illustrated to explain the oxidation mechanism. Silicon dioxide growth process model is proposed and illustrated that the phrase of protuberances growth change from charge transfer to diffusion. The present work offers an alternative approach to modify SiC surface, and provides a reference for chemical and mechanical synergetic effect applied in CMP.

In this paper, a series of indentation tests in which the maximum normal force ranged from 0.4 to 3.3 N were carried out to determine the fracture toughness of 4H-SiC single crystals. The results indicated that an appropriate ratio of the distance from the indentation center to the radial crack tip to the distance from the indentation center to the indentation corner is significant to calculate fracture toughness of 4H-SiC single crystals. The critical condition with no cracks on the edge of the indentation was obtained through a fitting method. The surface morphologies of the groove were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Plastic deformation was observed and characterized by the smooth groove without cracks and ductile chips on the edge of the groove in the initial stages of scratch. With increased normal force, median cracks, radial cracks, and microcracks appeared in turn, followed by the crack system no longer being able to stably extend, causing the brittle fracture to dominate the material removal. The size of the edge damages were measured through SEM and the experimental data highly agreed with the predicted curve. A modified calculation model considering elastic recovery of the sample by the indenter during the scratching process was suggested. These results prove that elastic recovery of 4H-SiC single crystals cannot be ignored during ultra-precision machining.