Epitaxy

Epitaxy
VLSI Technology
EC-5213
Dr. T. R. Lenka
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering
National Institute of Technology Silchar
WHAT IS EPITAXY
❑ Epitaxy (epi means "upon" and taxis means "ordered") is a term
applied to processes used to grow a thin crystalline layer on a
crystalline substrate.
❑ The seed crystal in epitaxial processes is the substrate.

CRYSTALLINE LAYER ON AN ANOTHER CRYSTALLINE LAYER
TYPES OF EPITAXY
 Two types of Epitaxy:

❑ Homoepitaxy – Material is grown epitaxially on a substrate of
the same material. e.g. growing of Si on Si substrate .
❑ Heteroepitaxy – A layer grown on a chemically different

substrate. E.g. Si growth on sapphire.
EPITAXIAL PROCESS REQUIREMENT IN IC
❑ Performance of many devices, such as CMOS (Complementary
MOS) and DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), can be
improved by employing epitaxial wafer.
❑ Epitaxial wafers have two fundamental advantages:
▪ First, they offer device engineers a means to control the doping
profiles not attainable through other conventional means such as
diffusion or ion implantation.
▪ Secondly, the physical and chemical properties of the epitaxial
layers can be made different from the bulk materials.

❑ MOS devices is vulnerable to soft errors created by
alpha particles originating from packaging materials and
the environment.
❑ A DRAM fabricated using the concept of epitaxial layers

has higher immunity against alpha-particle soft error.
Figure : (a) Cross-sectional schematic of a typical epitaxial layer and
substrate. (b) Wafer with an npn discrete transistor fabricated in a lightly
doped n-type epitaxial layer grown on a heavily doped n-type substrate.
A TYPICAL DRAM CELL SCHEMATIC CIRCUIT
❑ A CMOS circuit built in a structure using epitaxial
layers minimizes the possibility of latch-up.
❑ Avoiding latch-up is especially challenging in small-

dimension CMOS for dense VLSI applications.
❑ Latch-up is due to a regenerative bipolar-transistor

action used by a clamped, low-resistance path between
the power supply and ground.
A TYPICAL LATCH UP CONDITION
EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT CONDITION FOR LATCH UP
ADVANTAGES OF EPITAXY PROCESS
❑ Ability to place a lightly oppositely doped region over a

heavily doped region.
❑ Ability to contour and tailor the doping profile in ways not

possible using diffusion or implantation alone.
❑ Provide a layer of oxygen free material that is also

contained low carbon.
❑ That epitaxial structure reduces the “latch up” of high

density CMOS IC by reducing the unwanted interaction of
closely spaced device.
APPLICATION OF EPITAXIAL LAYER
❑ Engineered wafers
❑ Clean, flat layer on top of less ideal Si
substrate
❑ On top of SOI structures
❑ Ex.: Silicon on sapphire
❑ Higher purity layer on lower quality
substrate (SiC)
❑ In CMOS structures
❑ Layers of different doping
❑ Ex. p- layer on top of p+ substrate to
avoid latch-up
❑ More applications:
❑ Bipolar Transistor
▪ Needed to produce buried layer
❑ III-V Devices
▪ Interface quality key
▪ Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor
▪ LED
▪ Laser
General Epitaxial Deposition Requirements
❑ Surface preparation
▪ Clean surface needed
▪ Defects of surface duplicated in epitaxial layer
▪ Hydrogen passivation of surface with water/HF
❑ Surface mobility
▪ High temperature required →heated substrate
▪ Epitaxial temperature exists, above which deposition is
ordered
▪ Species need to be able to move into correct crystallographic
location
▪ Relatively slow growth rates result

GENERAL SCHEME FOR GROWTH OF EPITAXIAL LAYER ON A
SUBSTRATE
GROWTH TECHNIQUES FOR SILICON EPITAXY
❑ Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)
❑ Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)
❑ Liquid Phase Epitaxy (LPE)
❑ Solid phase regrowth

CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION
 Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of single-crystal

silicon is usually performed in a quartz reactor into
which a susceptor is placed.
 The susceptor provides physical support for the
substrate wafers and provides a more uniform thermal
environment .
 Deposition occurs at a high temperature at which
several chemical reactions take place when process
gases flow into the chamber.
THE GROWTH PROCESS CAN BE BROKEN DOWN INTO THE
FOLLOWING STEPS:
1) Introduction of the reactant species to the substrate region .
2) Transfer of the reactant species to the substrate surface .
3) Adsorption of the reactant species on the substrate surface .
4) Surface diffusion, site accommodation, chemical reaction, and layer
deposition .
5) Desorption of residual reactants and by-products.
6) Transfer of residual reactants and by-products from the substrate
surface .
7) Removal of residual reactants and by-products from the substrate
region .
TYPICAL CVD PROCESS FLOW CHART
SCHEMATIC DRAWING OF A SIMPLE HORIZONTAL FLOW, COLD
WALL, CVD REACTOR
 The most common starting chemical is silicon tetrachloride (SiCl4) as it
has a lower reactivity with respect to oxidizers in the carrier gas than
the other silicon hydrogen chloride compounds, such as SiH4, SiHCl3,
etc.
The overall reaction is :
SiCl4 ( gas ) + 2 H 2 ( gas )  Si ( solid ) + 4 HCl ( gas )
The detailed reaction mechanism is postulated to be :
SiCl4 + H 2  SiHCl3 + HCl
SiCl4 + H 2  SiHCl3 + HCl
SiH 2Cl2  SiCl2 + H 2
SiHCl3  SiCl2 + HCl
SiCl2 + H 2  Si + 2 HCl
 All the above reactions are reversible and at certain conditions, the
overall reaction rate can become negative. That is, etching occurs in
lieu of deposition.
Species detected by IR spectroscopy in a horizontal reactor using SiCl4 and H2
TYPES OF REACTORS IN A CVD PROCESS
 There are three common epitaxial reactor designs:

barrel, vertical, and horizontal.
 The horizontal reactor is the most commonly used
system.
 The vertical pancake reactor is capable of very uniform
growth
 Radiant-heated barrel reactors allow high-volume
production and uniform growth.
SCHEMATICS OF THREE COMMON REACTORS.
TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF A HORIZONTAL REACTOR
TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF A RADIANT BARREL REACTOR
TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF A VERTICAL REACTOR
MOLECULAR BEAM EPITAXY(MBE)
❑ Molecular beam epitaxy, which utilizes evaporation, is a non-CVD
epitaxial growth process.
❑ MBE is not complicated by boundary-layer transport effects, nor are
there chemical reactions to consider.
❑ The essence of the process is evaporation of silicon and one or more
dopants.
❑ Silicon MBE is performed under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions.
of 10-8 to 10-10 Torr, where the mean free path of the atom is given by
5x10-3/P where P is the system pressure in Torr.
❑ The typical growth temperature is between 400oC and 800oC .
❑ Growth rates are in the range of 0.01 to 0.3 μm/minute.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MOLECULAR BRAM EPITAXY
❑ Low growth rate of ~ 1 monolayer (lattice plane) per sec.
❑ Low growth temperature (~ 550°C for GaAs).
❑ Smooth growth surface with steps of atomic height and large flat
terraces.
❑ Precise control of surface composition and morphology.
❑ Abrupt variation of chemical composition at interfaces.
❑ In-situ control of crystal growth at the atomic level by employing.

surface analytical such as RHEED.
MBE GROWTH PROCESS
❑ Si and dopant(s) are evaporated in an ultra high vacuum (uhv)
chamber.
❑ The evaporated atoms are transported at relatively high velocity in
a straight line from the source to the substrate.
❑ They condense on the low temperature substrate.
❑ The condensed atoms of si or dopant will diffuse on the surface
until they reach a low energy site that they fit well the atomic
structure of the surface.
❑ The “adatom” then bonds in that low energy site, extending the
underlying crystal by a vapour to solid phase crystal growth.

SCHEMATIC OF MBE GROWTH SYSTEM.
MBE GROWTH PROCESS WITH SURFACE ANALYTICAL TOOL RHEED
A MBE GROWTH INSTRUMENT
INSIDE OF AN MBE GROWTH INSTRUMENT
REFLECTION HIGH ENERGY ELECTRON DIFFRACTION(RHEED)
❑ RHEED is the most useful surface analytical tool in the MBE growth
technique for in situ(in situ means on site or locally) studies of
surface crystallography and kinetics.
❑ RHEED is routinely used in MBE system to monitor and control

growth.
❑ In RHEED a collimated monoenergetic electron beam is directed

towards the surface at a gazing angle of about 10 from an eletron
gun.
❑ A fluorescent screen placed diametrically opposite the electron gun

records the diffraction pattern .
LIQUID PHASE EPITAXY (LPE)
❑ LPE technique is widely used for preparation of epitaxial layers on

compound semiconductors such as GaAs.
❑ LPE involves the growth of epitaxial layers on crystalline substrate

by precipitation from the liquid phase.
❑ Epitaxial layer grown by LPE exhibit exceptionally long minority

carrier life time.
❑ Due to long minority carrier lifetime they are preferred for optical
devices such as LED.
LPE GROWTH CHAMBER
LPE GROWTH CHAMBER
SOLID PHASE EPITAXY
❑ Re-growth of amorphous layers
• Surface layers subjected to high dose ion implants are in

amorphous structure due to the heavy damage inflicted on the
lattice as the energetic ions are absorbed.
• Annealing above 600C → amorphous layer re-crystallize.
• Re-crystallisation occurs from interface moves toward the

surface and results in solid phase epitaxial re-growth.
❑ Re-crystallisation of thin films
 Involves re-crystallisation of a deposited amorphous or
polysilicon film.
 Si film is deposited on a Si substrate or more commonly SiO2 →
heated using a strip heater passed over the surface or by a
scanned pulsed laser to crystallise the film to single crystal or
large grain polysilicon.
 This fabrication technique is used to produce a stacked n-
channel device in re-crystallised polysilicon on a thermally
grown or deposited oxide.
 Oriented epitaxial growth can be obtained by making series of
holes in the oxide to allow points of contact between the
underlying substrate and the deposited polysilicon.
 The contact points become “seeds” areas for establishing re-
growth orientation.
SUMMARY
❑ There are number of ways in which epitaxial growth can be achieved.
❑ MBE is a ultra high pressure and a relatively low temperature

technique.
❑ CVD is a vapor phase technique which is based on the transport of
epilayer constituents (Si, Ga, As dopants etc.) in the form of one or
more volatile compounds to the substrate, where they react to form the
epitaxial layer.
❑ Liquid phase epitaxy (LPE), involves the growth of epitaxial layers on
crystalline substrate by direct precipitation from the liquid phase.
❑ Re-growth of amorphous layer and re-crystallisation of thin films can be
done by solid phase epitaxy process.
Thank You!

Epitaxy

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Epitaxy

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Epitaxy

❑ Epitaxy (epi means "upon" and taxis means "ordered") is a term

applied to processes used to grow a thin crystalline layer on a

❑ The seed crystal in epitaxial processes is the substrate.

 Two types of Epitaxy:

❑ Heteroepitaxy – A layer grown on a chemically different

❑ Performance of many devices, such as CMOS (Complementary

MOS) and DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), can be

improved by employing epitaxial wafer.

❑ Epitaxial wafers have two fundamental advantages:

▪ First, they offer device engineers a means to control the doping

profiles not attainable through other conventional means such as

diffusion or ion implantation.

▪ Secondly, the physical and chemical properties of the epitaxial

layers can be made different from the bulk materials.

❑ A DRAM fabricated using the concept of epitaxial layers

❑ Avoiding latch-up is especially challenging in small-

❑ Latch-up is due to a regenerative bipolar-transistor

❑ Ability to place a lightly oppositely doped region over a

❑ Ability to contour and tailor the doping profile in ways not

❑ Provide a layer of oxygen free material that is also

❑ That epitaxial structure reduces the “latch up” of high

❑ Clean, flat layer on top of less ideal Si

❑ On top of SOI structures

❑ Ex.: Silicon on sapphire

❑ Higher purity layer on lower quality

❑ Layers of different doping

❑ Ex. p- layer on top of p+ substrate to

▪ Needed to produce buried layer

▪ Interface quality key

▪ Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor

▪ Clean surface needed

▪ Defects of surface duplicated in epitaxial layer

▪ Hydrogen passivation of surface with water/HF

▪ High temperature required →heated substrate

▪ Epitaxial temperature exists, above which deposition is

▪ Species need to be able to move into correct crystallographic

▪ Relatively slow growth rates result

❑ Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)

❑ Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)

❑ Liquid Phase Epitaxy (LPE)

❑ Solid phase regrowth

 Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of single-crystal

 There are three common epitaxial reactor designs:

❑ Molecular beam epitaxy, which utilizes evaporation, is a non-CVD

epitaxial growth process.

❑ MBE is not complicated by boundary-layer transport effects, nor are

there chemical reactions to consider.

❑ The essence of the process is evaporation of silicon and one or more

5x10-3/P where P is the system pressure in Torr.

❑ The typical growth temperature is between 400oC and 800oC .

❑ Growth rates are in the range of 0.01 to 0.3 μm/minute.

❑ Low growth rate of ~ 1 monolayer (lattice plane) per sec.

❑ Low growth temperature (~ 550°C for GaAs).

❑ Precise control of surface composition and morphology.

❑ Abrupt variation of chemical composition at interfaces.

❑ In-situ control of crystal growth at the atomic level by employing.

❑ Si and dopant(s) are evaporated in an ultra high vacuum (uhv)

❑ The evaporated atoms are transported at relatively high velocity in

a straight line from the source to the substrate.

❑ They condense on the low temperature substrate.

❑ The condensed atoms of si or dopant will diffuse on the surface

underlying crystal by a vapour to solid phase crystal growth.