Article PreviewArticle PreviewArticle PreviewA wide characterization of crystalline defects involved in the 3C-SiC heteroepitaxy on Si is here presented. The aim of this work is to show how analysis techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD), can help the researcher in the study of structural defects. The work is focused on stacking faults and microtwins since both of them influence the atomic stacking along the {111} 3C-SiC planes. Their distinction can indeed be troublesome. It will be shown that TEM can be helpful, by choosing a determined zone axis of observation, for defect characterization and distinction. Moreover, the impact of microtwins on the crystal quality of 3C-SiC films is studied by performing XRD pole figures. By means of this technique and simulations, we found that the< 111> direction of the SiC crystal is not aligned to the< 110> Si direction, but it is shifted …