Optimization of selective epitaxial growth of silicon in LPCVD

Abstract

Selective epitaxial growth (SEG) of silicon has attracted considerable attention for its good electrical properties and advantages in building microstructures in high-density devices. However, SEG problems, such as an unclear process window, selectivity loss, and nonuniformity have often made application difficult. In our study, we derived processing diagrams for SEG from thermodynamics on gas-phase reaction so that we could predict the SEG process zone for low pressure chemical vapor deposition. In addition, with the help of both the concept of the effective supersaturation ratio and three kinds of E-beam patterns, we evaluated and controlled selectivity loss and non-uniformity in SEG, which is affected by the loading effect. To optimize the SEG process, we propose two practical methods: One deals with cleaning the wafer, and the other involves inserting dummy active patterns into the wide insulator to prevent the silicon from nucleating.