Wider latitude for sophisticated devices by incorporating carbon into crystalline Si or SiGe

Research on highly supersaturated, carbon-containing alloys on silicon subs trates started only a few years ago. Meanwhile, knowledge has been accumula ted on growth, strain manipulation, thermal stability, carbon effects on ba nd structure acid charge carrier transport. We review basic mechanical and electrical material properties of Si1-yCy and Si1-x-yGexCy layers grown pse udomorphically on Si(001). Adding carbon alleviates some of the constraints for strained Si1-xGex, and opens new possibilities for device application of heteroepitaxial Si-based systems. The incorporation of carbon is benefic ial for: (i) improving SiGe layer properties: (ii) creating layers with new properties; and (iii) controlling dopant diffusion in microelectronic devi ces. A large variety of applications in microelectronic devices appears lik ely. The first device application ready for production is the npn-SiGe:C he terojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) with excellent static and high freque ncy performance. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.