Epitaxial Deposition

Daniel Lentz

EE 518
Penn State University
March 29, 2007
Instructor: Dr. J. Ruzyllo
Outline
 Introduction
 Mechanism of epitaxial growth

 Methods of epitaxial deposition

 Properties of epitaxial layers

 Applications of epitaxial layers

Epitaxial Growth
 Deposition of a layer on
a substrate which Ordered,
crystalline
matches the crystalline growth;
order of the substrate NOT
epitaxial
 Homoepitaxy
 Growth of a layer of the
same material as the
substrate
Epitaxial
 Si on Si growth:
 Heteroepitaxy
 Growth of a layer of a
different material than
the substrate
 GaAs on Si
Motivation
 Epitaxial growth is useful for applications that place
stringent demands on a deposited layer:
 High purity
 Low defect density
 Abrupt interfaces
 Controlled doping profiles
 High repeatability and uniformity
 Safe, efficient operation
 Can create clean, fresh surface for device
fabrication
General Epitaxial Deposition
Requirements
 Surface preparation
 Clean surface needed
 Defects of surface duplicated in epitaxial layer
 Hydrogen passivation of surface with water/HF
 Surface mobility
 High temperature required heated substrate
 Epitaxial temperature exists, above which deposition is
ordered
 Species need to be able to move into correct
crystallographic location
 Relatively slow growth rates result
 Ex. ~0.4 to 4 nm/min., SiGe on Si
General Scheme

Modified from http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~tjm/MOVPE-GaN-schematic.jpg

Thermodynamics
 Specific thermodynamics varies by process
 Chemical potentials
 Driving force
 High temperature process is mass transport controlled, not very
sensitive to temperature changes
 Steady state
 Close enough to equilibrium that chemical forces that drive growth
are minimized to avoid creation of defects and allow for correct
ordering
 Sufficient energy and time for adsorbed species to reach their lowest
energy state, duplicating the crystal lattice structure
 Thermodynamic calculations allow the determination of solid
composition based on growth temperature and source composition
Kinetics
 Growth rate controlled by kinetic
considerations
 Mass transport of reactants to surface
 Reactions in liquid or gas
 Reactions at surface
 Physical processes on surface
 Nature and motion of step growth
 Controlling factor in ordering
 Specific reactions depend greatly on method
employed
Kinetics Example
 Atoms can bond to flat surface,
steps, or kinks.
 On surface requires some critical
radius
 Easier at steps
 Easiest at kinks
 As-rich GaAs surface
 As only forms two bonds to
underlying Ga
 Very high energy
 Reconstructs by forming As dimers
 Lowers energy
 Causes kinks and steps on surface
 Results in motion of steps on
surface
 If start with flat surface, create step
once first group has bonded
 Growth continues in same way

http://www.bnl.gov/nsls2/sciOps/chemSci/growth.asp
Vapor Phase Epitaxy
 Specific form of chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
 Reactants introduced as gases
 Material to be deposited bound to ligands
 Ligands dissociate, allowing desired chemistry to
reach surface
 Some desorption, but most adsorbed atoms find
proper crystallographic position
 Example: Deposition of silicon
 SiCl4 introduced with hydrogen
 Forms silicon and HCl gas
 Alternatively, SiHCl3, SiH2Cl2
 SiH4 breaks via thermal decomposition
Precursors for VPE
 Must be sufficiently volatile to allow
acceptable growth rates
 Heating to desired T must result in pyrolysis
 Less hazardous chemicals preferable
 Arsine highly toxic; use t-butyl arsine instead
 VPE techniques distinguished by precursors
used
Varieties of VPE
 Chloride VPE
 Chlorides of group III and V elements
 Hydride VPE
 Chlorides of group III element
 Group III hydrides desirable, but too unstable
 Hydrides of group V element
 Organometallic VPE
 Organometallic group III compound
 Hydride or organometallic of group V element
 Not quite that simple
 Combinations of ligands in order to optimize
deposition or improve compound stability
 Ex. trimethylaminealane gives less carbon
contamination than trimethylalluminum

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e5/Trimethylaluminum.png/100px-Trimethylaluminum.png,
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/jpchax/1995/99/i01/f-pdf/f_j100001a033.pdf?sessid=6006l3
Other Methods
 Liquid Phase Epitaxy
 Reactants are dissolved in
a molten solvent at high
temperature
 Substrate dipped into
solution while the
temperature is held
constant
 Example: SiGe on Si
 Bismuth used as solvent
 Temperature held at
800°C
 High quality layer
 Fast, inexpensive
 Not ideal for large area
layers or abrupt interfaces
 Thermodynamic driving
force relatively very low
 Molecular Beam Epitaxy
 Very promising technique
 Elemental vapor phase
method
 Beams created by
evaporating solid source in
UHV
Doping of Epitaxial Layers
 Incorporate dopants during deposition
 Theoretically abrupt dopant distribution
 Add impurities to gas during deposition
 Arsine, phosphine, and diborane common
 Low thermal budget results
 High T treatment results in diffusion of dopant into
substrate
 Reason abrupt distribution not perfect
Properties of Epitaxial Layer
 Crystallographic structure of film reproduces that of
substrate
 Substrate defects reproduced in epi layer
 Electrical parameters of epi layer independent of
substrate
 Dopant concentration of substrate cannot be reduced
 Epitaxial layer with less dopant can be deposited
 Epitaxial layer can be chemically purer than
substrate
 Abrupt interfaces with appropriate methods
Applications
 Engineered wafers
 Clean, flat layer on top of
less ideal Si substrate
 On top of SOI structures
 Ex.: Silicon on sapphire
 Higher purity layer on lower
quality substrate (SiC)
 In CMOS structures
 Layers of different doping
 Ex. p- layer on top of p+
substrate to avoid latch-up
More applications
 Bipolar Transistor
 Needed to produce
buried layer
http://www.search.com/reference/Bipolar_junction_transistor
 III-V Devices
 Interface quality key
 Heterojunction Bipolar
Transistor
 LED
 Laser
http://www.veeco.com/library/elements/images/hbt.jpg
Summary
 Deposition continues crystal structure
 Creates clean, abrupt interfaces and high
quality surfaces
 High temperature, clean surface required
 Vapor phase epitaxy a major method of
deposition
 Epitaxial layers used in highest quality wafers
 Very important in III-V semiconductor
production
References
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