Im. Lee et al., EFFECTS OF WATER-VAPOR AND CHLORINE ON THE EPITAXIAL-GROWTH OF SI1-XGEX FILMS BY CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION - THERMODYNAMIC ANALYSIS, Journal of vacuum science & technology. B, Microelectronics and nanometer structures processing, measurement and phenomena, 15(4), 1997, pp. 880-885
The effects of water vapor and chlorine on the Si1-xGex epitaxial grow
th are studied through thermodynamic analyses. Since Ge does not form
chemical species with oxygen at an appreciable level, the water vapor
and oxygen background level requirements for Si1-xGex epitaxial growth
are mostly similar to the ones for Si growth. At large excesses of Ge
gas phase sources and low system water vapor level, however, the crit
ical temperature above which oxide-free epitaxial growth occurs decrea
ses with increasing system pressure. Analyses of the results obtained
suggest that there are two mechanisms for the removal of SiO2(s) from
the surface: one is by forming volatile SiO, and the other is by formi
ng gas phase H2O. The former one appears to dominate for most conditio
ns studied; the latter one appears to dominate when the water vapor le
vel of the system is very low and/or small amounts of the Si gaseous s
ource are present. The boundary between etching and deposition of Si1-
xGex films is examined for all Ge solid phase compositions. The etch/d
eposition boundaries for pure Si and pure Ge show opposite trends with
increasing chlorine concentrations, because of the different affiniti
es of Si and Ge to form chlorinated species. The chlorine concentratio
n needed to reach etching increases with increasing system temperature
for Si, whereas it decreases with increasing temperature for Ge. It i
s found that the formation of SiCl4 is favored over GeCl2 at low tempe
ratures, while the opposite happens at higher temperatures. The etch/d
eposition boundary for Si1-xGex thin films is found to form a saddleli
ke contour because of the interaction of the different behaviors of Si
and Ge. Overall, calculated results are seen to be in good agreement
with available experimental results. (C) 1997 American Vacuum Society.