EPITAXY

EPITAXY: Epi (upon or above )-Taxy (ordered )

Growth of a thin single crystal film on top of a crystalline substrate

Types of Epitaxy

 Homo epitaxy:

The film and the substrate are the same material.

Often used in Si on Si growth.

Epitaxially grown layers are purer than the substrate and can be doped
independently of it.
different doping concentration
In epi layer, we can control the resistivity
different resistivity of layer, but making high resistive wafer is
very costly.
But, the material is the same  High resistive epi layer in order to have
high breakdown voltage.
For example:
n epitaxy layer
n+ buried layer n+ buried layer
p-type Si (1,1,1) and
ρ = 10 Ω-cm

collector base emitter

We have a p-type silicon substrate grown an p

Base p+
n-type epitaxial layer over it. +
n+ buried
layer
but both of them are made of silicon.
  Hetero epitaxy:

Film and substrate are different materials. – e.g.: AlAs on GaAs growth.

Trying to grow a layer of a different material on top of a substrate leads to

unmatched lattice parameters.

This will cause strained or relaxed growth and can lead to interfacial
defects.

Such deviations from normal would lead to changes in the electronic, optic,
thermal and mechanical properties of the films.
When the epitaxy is possible ? (Rules)

Some requirements for epitaxy formation on substrate layer:

There should not be chemical reaction between the two materials.

 No lattice mismatch.

 No thermal mismatch : Thermal coefficient of expansion

In the above requirements, more stringent is the first one. If other

requirements are not met, then crystal will be in strain and can be become
poly or amorphous, after certain limit.

Epitaxy system can be classified :

1. Liquid phase epitaxy

2. Vapour phase epitaxy
3. Molecular beam epitaxy
vapour phase epitaxy and the liquid phase epitaxy: There are some chemical
reactions involved .

 In contrast, in MBE there is no chemical reactions involved. This is a physical

evaporation process.
The results in MBE is best. However, it is most difficult

LPE

• Keep substrate in the liquid Ga

•Reduce temperature, precipitation occurs on substrate

 Vapor Phase Epitaxy

Gas flow from left to right, velocity is zero near the sample.

There is formation of stagnant layer

Laminar gas flow

Deposition will be non uniform high thickness in the left and lesser in the right
hand side
 Eq-1

Where
d = the diameter of the tube through which the gas flow is taking place.
v = velocity of gas flow.
= density of the gas.

= viscosity of this gas.

 After putting value of NR from eq (1)

y= thickness of the boundary layer or the stagnant layer , x= distance along the
chamber/ tube/pipe
But if we increase the velocity of the gas, gas consumption will
be more.
Fick's first law :

F = - D dC/dx
Where
 F is the "diffusion flux," of which the dimension is amount of
substance per unit area per unit time, so it is expressed in such units as
mol m−2 s−1. J measures the amount of substance that will flow through a
unit area during a unit time interval.

 D is the diffusion coefficient or diffusivity. Its dimension is area per

unit time, so typical units for expressing it would be m2/s.

 C (for ideal mixtures) is the concentration, of which the dimension is

amount of substance per unit volume. It might be expressed in units of no
of atoms /m3.
x is position, the dimension of which is length. It might thus be
expressed in the unit m.

 Minus sign due to flow of dopants from higher concentration to lower

concentration.
This diagram shows the nomenclature for the different phase transitions
 Cg = concentration of the reactants in the gas.

Cs = concentration of the reactants on the surface (substrate/wafer)

Cg

mass transfer constant hg= Dg / y or Cs

Operating temperature and pressure:
1/T
In case of very low pressures, reaction is surface limited
Cleanliness

The chamber is made of very high purity quartz.

The reactants may need a carrier gas and 6N purity.

Hot wall vs cold wall reactor

cold wall reactors– means that only wafers are heated locally.

Benefit- Contamination deposition tends to be on the reactor wall.

If the reactor wall is hot ( overall chamber is heated) then contamination

deposition tends to be on the sample itself.

There must be provision for an in-situ cleaning of wafer surface before

epitaxy growth. In-situ cleaning means, once I have taken the sample inside
the chamber, just before the epitaxy is carried out, there must be a provision
for cleaning the wafers
Types of reactor

. Horizontal reactor – flow of the gas is parallel to the surface. The tilt is 1-50

This method ensures that every where the gas flow is parallel to slices.
Vertical reactor

In vertical reactor, where the gas flow is in a direction normal to the
surface of the wafer.

Here the boundary layer problem is less acute,

In a vertical reactor you cannot place too many wafers at a time.

Barrel type reactor:

Provides mass production

In a barrel type reactor, the reactor holder is a barrel

We rotate the barrel for better uniformity of deposition.

 barrel reactor is also a horizontal reactor, because the gas flow is
parallel to the semiconductor wafer surface.
Less contamination because of the sloppy placement of the wafer.
Contamination flow downward.
 Source chemicals

In regime ‘B’ ( B

region) - growth rate
is independent from
the temp. Growth rate
is diffusion limited.

 At low temp.,
growth rate is
exponentially related
with temp. growth rate
is surface reaction
limited.

Growth rate is more for SiH4 compared to any other sources.

 Usefulness/drawbacks of SiCl4

Insensitive to O2

Reaction take place at higher temp.

All the reactions will have HCl as the byproduct. Excellent venting required.

SiHCl3 is another choice

This reaction take place at 700 0C.

All the reactions will have HCl as the byproduct. Excellent venting
required.
Is there a reactant which does not involve HCl production?
Efficiency of deposition
Depending on mole fraction
of Sicl4 and growth temp.
either deposition or etching
will be dominate.
 What are the advantages of using a silane process over a chlorosilane

1. no HCl.

2. This reaction takes place at a relatively lower temperature. By 5000C,

3. This reaction ( silane) is non-reversible.

4. we get high growth.

Drawbacks:

 Nucleation ( new structure) can take place in gas phase also. Means Si atom
may be separated in gas phase itself.

Every where you have sample in chamber.

Poor morphology: poorer crystal quality

Silane reaction is sensitive to O2

We had grown an n-type epitaxial layer for BJT.

 We use hydrides of the dopants.

 Common dopants are boron, phosphorus and arsenic.

They will decompose and introduce the dopants into the silicon.
 Gas phase auto doping Solid state diffusion

Limitation during epitaxy growth process:

1. Gas phase auto doping

 Before the epitaxial growth takes place the sample is being treated to high
temperature.

It will not follow exactly the required doping level.

Solid state diffusion

If the doping concentration of the substrate and the epitaxial layer is different
( in most of cases it is different)

Then there will be a diffusion from the higher concentration side to the lower
concentration side .

and thus, doping concentration of the epitaxial layer can change.

Thus a diffusion occurs across the interface.

Thus the boundary will never be an abrupt straight line.

Generalized
doping profile

Ideal abrupt profile of doping ( dotted line)

Like we have seen in BJT

case, where n epitaxial was on
n+ buried layer
Ideal abrupt profile of
doping ( dotted line)
As above effect will determine how thin an epitaxial layer I can grow with
the proper doping concentration NE .

epitaxial layer with the proper doping

concentration is there only after the
transition region.
transition layer
Situation with opposite dopant types

Substrate = p-type Epitaxial layer= n-type

Junction Shift problem:

 Metallurgical junction and Electrical junction will be at different location.

Metallurgical junction means : interface between to type regions.

Now assume that p-type dopant present in substrate have low

doping concentration compared to n-type doptant in the epi-layer.
Lateral autodpoing : Auto doping not only vertical but extent to lateral direction as
well.

n epitaxy layer
n+ buried layer