To assure reliability of SiC power devices, suppression of bipolar degradation is one of the most important issues. Since bipolar degradation occurs when electron-hole pairs recombine at BPDs, reduction of BPD densities in SiC crystals is effective to suppress it. It is known that most of BPDs in SiC substrates are transformed into harmless threading edge dislocations (TEDs) when epitaxial drift layers are formed. However, bipolar degradation still occurs when carriers reach BPDs in the substrate regions. [1-2] Hence there is a demand to develop techniques to produce SiC substrates with low BPD densities. In this paper, we, NGK INSULATORS, LTD., which is a Japanese ceramics company, present a novel method to grow 4H-SiC crystals with low BPD densities using its ceramic processing technology. Fig. 1 shows a schematic of our crystal growth process. SiC powders with additives that produce liquid phase upon heating and promote crystal growth, and a 6-inch SiC substrate (seed crystal) are contained in a graphite crucible. The crucibles are heat-treated at temperatures above 2000℃ in the mixed atmosphere of argon and nitrogen using a furnace with graphite heaters. The mechanism of the crystal growth is presumed to be the dissolution of SiC particles into the liquid phase and recrystallization onto the substrates. One of the primary advantages of this method is the ability to process multiple substrates simultaneously, which leads to a high productivity and a low cost. The resultant SiC sample is schematically shown in Fig. 2. SiC crystals with a thickness of ~100 – 200 m are grown onto SiC substrates. Fig 3(a) and (b) show X-ray topography images of the seed crystal region and the grown crystal region, respectively. These images clearly show that BPDs indicated by black, string-like contrasts are significantly reduced in the grown crystal region. Molten salt etching of the sample showed that the BPD density of the grown crystal region was typically ~1/5 to 1/10 of that of the seed crystal region. Detailed investigation on the behavior of BPDs and other defects associated with the crystal growth is reported in a separate paper in this conference. To prevent the inclusions of polytypes other than 4H in the grown crystals, it is necessary to maintain a low heating rate until reaching the maximum temperature. Fig. 4(a) and (b) show the polarized microscope images of the samples prepared under high and low heating rate conditions, respectively. The former sample contains some 6H regions, while the latter sample consists only of 4H. To investigate the origin of 6H regions, the cross section of the 6H regions was observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). As a result, inclusions of the additives were confirmed near the edge of the 6H regions. These results suggest that a high heating rate leads to insufficient melting of the additives in the early stage of the crystal growth, inhibiting the epitaxial growth of 4H through the formation of additive inclusions. The nitrogen concentration in the grown crystals, which determines their resistivity, varies with the N2 partial pressure in the atmosphere during crystal growth as shown in Fig. 5. The nitrogen concentration can be controlled from 2×1018 to 1×1019 /cm3, a range equivalent to that of current standard SiC substrates. The typical properties of 6-inch SiC substrates (seed crystals) and grown crystals are summarized in Table 1. It is confirmed that our crystal growth method significantly reduces BPD densities of SiC substrates while maintaining substrates’ polytype, off-angle, and resistivity. The impacts of the low BPD densities on device performances are under investigation and will be reported in the future.