A comparative study on the effect of wet and dry thermal oxidation on 4H-silicon carbide (SIC) and on sacrificial silicon (Si) thermal oxidation on 4H-SiC surface has been conducted using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The AFM images show the formation of 'nano-islands' of varying density on the SiC surface after the removal of thermal oxide using hydrofluoric (HF) acid etch. These nano-islands are resistant to KF acid and have been previously linked to residual carbon [1-3] resulting from the oxidation process. This paper presents the use of a sacrificial silicon oxidation (SSO) step as a Form of surface preparation that gives a reproducible clean SIC surface. XPS results show a slight electrical shift in binding energy between the wet and dry thermal oxidation on the standard SLC surface, while the surface produced by the: SSO technique shows a minimal shift,