Silicon Epitaxy By Hot Wall Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor-Deposition

Hot wall plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition is examined for epitaxial silicon growth for advanced devices. The reactor has a load lock and can provide an in situ plasma clean of the wafers before deposition. At 800-degrees-C, layers of good quality are obtainable at growth rates of 1.4mu-m/h. Defect densities for the layers are low. Concentrations of carbon and oxygen at the epilayer-substrate interface are comparable to those for more elaborate cleaning processes. Although the wafers are directly exposed to the plasma during the cleaning and the deposition, no additional defects caused by the plasma were detected.