High rate epitaxy of silicon thick films by medium pressure plasma chemical vapor deposition

• Published in: Journal of applied physics 2006-04, Vol.99 (7), p.074901-074901-7
• Main Authors: Kambara, M., Yagi, H., Sawayanagi, M., Yoshida, T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0021-8979; 1089-7550
• DOI: 10.1063/1.2181279

Homoepitaxial silicon thick films have been produced by medium pressure plasma chemical vapor deposition at rates as fast as 60 nm ∕ s and at a temperature of around 700 ° C , with a silane gas partial pressure of 4 mTorr . The continuous transition of the film structures from agglomerated to faceted columnar and to epitaxial planar structure was observed with an increase in the plasma power. The calorimetric analysis during deposition has also confirmed that the thermal boundary layer thickness between the plasma and substrate reduced with the increasing power and became comparable to the mean free path of the vapors when epitaxy was achieved at high rates. In addition, the rate for epitaxial growth was observed to increase linearly with silane gas partial pressure. These potentially indicate that less coagulated silicon atom clusters formed in the reduced boundary thickness have contributed effectively to the high rate epitaxial growth.