Exploitation of surface selective growth in metalorganic growth technologies for device applications

Surface selective growth (SSG) is gaining importance for the realization of complex device concepts. This review article addresses basic SSG mechanism s both in metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) and in metalorganic mole cular beam epitaxy (MOMBE/CBE). It is described how these mechanisms can be exploited for the fabrication of complex devices focusing on the InP based material system. Additionally it is shown that with novel precursors new e ffects can be observed in SSG. The applications of SSG are highlighted by a discussion on selected devices. A critical comparison reveals that SSG in MOVPE can find some applications, but MOMBE offers higher flexibility, more over a higher yield than in MOVPE can be expected. Therefore, MOMBE appears to be the preferred technology for SSG. However, since MOMBE is not establ ished in production, a substantial R&D back-up is required for an industria l application of SSG in MOMBE. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.