The top seeded solution growth (TSSG) method is an alternative technique to grow high-quality SiC crystals that has been actively studied for the last two decades. However, the TSSG method has different issues that need to be resolved when compared to the commercial SiC crystal growing method, i.e., physical vapor transport (PVT). A particular issue of the TSSG method of results from the presence of liquid droplets on the grown crystal that can remain even after crystal growth; this induces residual stress on the crystal surface. Hence, the residual droplet causes several unwanted effects on the crystal such as the initiation of micro-cracks, micro-pipes, and polytype inclusions. Therefore, this study investigated the formation of the residual droplet through multiphysics simulations and lead to the development of a liquid droplet removal method. As a result, we found that although residual liquid droplets significantly apply residual stress on the grown crystal, these could be vaporized by adopting thermal annealing processes after the relevant crystal growing steps.
