Micropipe

Article summary

A micropipe, also called a micropore, microtube, capillary defect, or pinhole defect, is a crystallographic defect in a single-crystal substrate. Minimizing the presence of micropipes is important in semiconductor manufacturing, as their presence on a wafer can result in the failure of integrated circuits made from that wafer. Micropipes are also relevant to makers of silicon carbide (SiC) substrates, used in a variety of industries such as power semiconductor devices for vehicles and high-frequency communication devices; during the production of these materials, the crystal undergoes internal and external stresses causing growth of defects, or dislocations, within the atomic lattice. A screw dislocation is a common dislocation that transforms successive atomic planes within a crystal lattice into the shape of a helix. Once a screw dislocation propagates through the bulk of a sample during the wafer growth process, a micropipe is formed. Micropipes and screw dislocations in epitaxial layers are normally derived from the substrates on which the epitaxy is performed. Micropipes are considered to be empty-core screw dislocations with large strain energy (i.e. they have large Burgers vector); they follow the growth direction (c-axis) in silicon carbide boules and substrates propagating into the deposited epitaxial layers.…

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