The Manipulation and Alignment of Silicon Carbide Whiskers for Gallium Nitride Epitaxial Growth

As a substrate candidate for low‐cost III‐nitride thin film growth, 3C–SiC whiskers are employed and manipulated in this work. The alignment of the whiskers is achieved on a patterned 3M Vikuiti™ Brightness Enhancement Film surface. The degree of whisker alignment using this approach is higher than the whiskers lined up by extrusion methods according to X‐ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The aligned whiskers are transferred from the 3M film and embedded into an alumina matrix by tape casting. A self‐regulating sintering technique for SiC whiskers is used to protect the whiskers from being oxidized in air during sintering at 1600°C. The aligned whiskers are rigidly embedded in the alumina matrix as shown in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectrometry energy mapping images. GaN thin films grown by a low‐cost sputtering process on Alumina/SiC as well as Si and SiC as reference materials are characterized by XRD and SEM.

The Manipulation and Alignment of Silicon Carbide Whiskers for Gallium Nitride Epitaxial Growth Journal Articles