MAIMOONA YASMIN
PHYSICS DEPARTMENT UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW LUCKNOW-226 007
maimoonayasmin@yahoo.com
SILICON EPITAXY
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Definitions. Why Silicon dominates? Why silicon epitaxy? Lattice matching in epitaxial growth. Gases used in Silicon epitaxy. Types of Epitaxy. Silicon on insulator. Applications - Si on Sapphire device - Buried Layer Device - UV Silicon Detector Summary
9.
Definitions
Epitaxy: arranged upon
Homoepitaxy: Same substrate and film e.g. Silicon on Silicon Heteroepitaxy: Different substrate and film. e.g. Silicon on Sapphire.
2.352 Ao 2.33 gm/cm3 12.06 cm3 2200 m/s 1000,000 cm 28% 1414oC 2900oC
Why Si Epitaxy?
To enhance the performance of discrete bipolar transistor. To improve the performance of dynamic random access memory devices (RAMs). Advantages of epitaxial wafers over bulk wafers Offers means of controlling the doping profile Epitaxial layers are generally oxygen and carbon free
1.43eV
In .53Ga.47 As 0.36eV
5.65
6.06
Types of Epitaxy
(a) Liquid phase epitaxy - III-V epitaxial layer GaAs - Refreeze of laser melted silicon (b) Molecular beam epitaxy - Crystalline layer grows in vacuum - 500o C (c) Vapor phase epitaxy - It is performed by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) - Provides excellent control of thickness, doping and crystallinity - High temperature (800o C 1100oC)
Wafer held on carbon slider Moves into a pocket containing melt Slider moves the substrate to the next chamber.
Substrate is held in high vacuum in the range 10-10 torr Components along with dopants, are heated in separate cylindrical cells. Collimated beams of these escape into the vacuum and are directed into the surface of a substrate Sample held at relatively low temperature (600oC for GaAs) Conventional temperature range is 400o C to 800oC Growth rates are in the range of 0.01 to 0.3 m/min
Equipment
Equipment
An ultra high vacuum chamber holding heated substrate. Furnaces holding electronic grade silicon and dopants. Beams of these dopants & EGS directed into the heated wafer. For attaining vacuum level in the 1010 torr range, material should have a low vapor pressure and low sticking coefficient. Silicon volatized by electron beam heating rather than by heating in furnace. Buffers & shutters shape and control flux. Resistance heating generates temperature over the range of 400oC to 1100oC.
Advantages of MBE
Low temperature processing (400oC-800oC) Precise control of doping No chemical reactions along with high thermal velocities results in properties rapidly changing with source A wider choice of dopants Mostly used dopants are Sb, Ga, Al
Equipment
Weight 2000 Kg Occupy 2m2 or more of floor space. Quartz reaction chamber with susceptors Graphite susceptors for physical support A coating of silicon carbide (50 to 500 m) applied by CVD process on susceptors. Rf heating coil or tungsten halogen lamps. Radiant heating Water cooling
VPE process
Hydrogen gas purges of air from the reactor . Reactor is heated to a temperature. After thermal equilibrium, an HCl etch takes place at 1150oC and 1200oC for 3 minutes nominally. Temperature is reduced to growth temperature. Silicon source and dopant flows are turned on. After growth, temperature is reduced by shutting off power. Hydrogen flow replaced by nitrogen flow. Depending on wafer diameter and reactor type, 10 to 50 wafer per batch can be formed. Process cycle times are about one hour .
Doping
Intentional addition of impurities or dopants to the crystal to change its electronic properties (varying conductivity of semiconductors) Doping of 1014 to 1017 atom/cm3 Typically hydrides of atoms are used as the source of dopants eg. PH3, AsH3 or B2H6 for controlled doping 2AsH3 (gas) 2As (solid) + 3H2 (gas) 2As (solid) 2As+ (solid) + 2e-
2AsH3 (gas)
Autodoping
Outdiffusion from heavily doped substrate Impurity incorporation from dopant in gas phase Autodoping limits the minimum layer thickness Generalized doping profile of an epitaxial layer detailing various regions of autodoping
Minimizing Autodoping
Fast growth to minimize outdiffusion. Low temperature deposition reduces boron autodoping (not As however). Seal backside of substrate with highly doped polyoxide. Avoid the use of HCl etching. Reduced pressure epitaxy.
Silicon on insulators
Fabrication of devices in small islands of silicon on an insulating substrate eg. Silicon on Sapphire (Al2O3) Substrates have the appropriate thermal expansion match to silicon. Epitaxial films grown by CVD (eg. Pyrolysis of silane) Junction capacitance is reduced thus improve the high frequency operation of circuits
Silicon on sapphire
SiH4 Si + 2H2 (low temperature) Temperature 1000o C 1050oC Growth rate 0.5 m/min Film thickness 1 m or less Doping range 1014 to 1016 atoms/cm3 High defect density permits only majority carrier devices Carrier mobility is reduced.
Buried layer
The higher collector series resistance of an integrated transistor can be easily reduced by a process known as buried layer
SUMMARY
Silicon is the most preferable material for epitaxial growth. Three basic methods for growing epitaxial layer on silicon. (a.) LPE (b). MBE (C). VPE In all these, lattice structure and lattice constant should match for the two materials. The advantages of SOI techniques are compelling for high density and high speed circuits MBE is advantageous in ion implanted VLSI circuits While growth of crystal the growth rate and doping rate should be well controlled. Autodoping can be controlled by low temperature epitaxial growth. Fast growth to minimize outdiffusion. The trend to thinner layers for bipolar and unipolar ICs will result in incremental process improvements and continued steady of flatness changes, defect generation, and autodoping effect. Contamination free epitaxy will be a worthwhile process improvement.