Baliga B.J. (Ed.) Epitaxial Silicon Technology

Academic Press, 1986. — 332 p. — ISBN: 0-12-077120-9.Among process technologies, epitaxial growth of silicon represents a cornerstone upon which many device structures have been developed. Epitaxial layers have been used for the fabrication of integrated circuits and discrete devices.
The growth of epitaxial layers of silicon has been treated previously in books that deal with general process technology. In these cases, the focus is primarily upon vapor-phase epitaxy. The epitaxial growth of silicon by other techniques is relegated to reviews specializing in growth techniques, which include other semiconductor materials. The purpose of this book on silicon epitaxial technologies is to provide in a single volume an indepth review of all the silicon epitaxial growth techniques.
The growth of epitaxial layers of silicon began by employing chemical vapor deposition at atmospheric pressure using chlorosilanes. This technology has now diversified due to the development of molecular-beam and liquid-phase epitaxial techniques. In addition, even conventional vapor-phase epitaxy has been revolutionized by recently developed low-pressure deposition techniques. Further, this technology is being xtended to the growth of epitaxial layers on insulating substrates by means of a variety of lateral seeding approaches. In spite of the widespread use of this technology and its vital importance to the semiconductor industry, no single book that provides an in-depth review of this subject has been published previously.
This book is organized into five chapters. In the first chapter, the growth of silicon layers by vapor-phase epitaxy is discussed. Both atmospheric and low-pressure growth are considered. This is the most widespread technology in use today by the semiconductor industry. The second chapter discusses molecular-beam epitaxial growth of silicon. Although molecular-beam epitaxy has been used extensively for the growth of compound semiconductors, its application to the growth of silicon layers is more recent. This approach provides a unique ability to grow very thin layers with precisely controlled doping characteristics. In the third chapter, the reader is introduced to silicon liquid-phase epitaxy. Again, this approach to epitaxial growth was originally developed for compound semiconductors. The incentives to apply liquid-phase epitaxy to the growth of silicon layers arose from a desire to decrease the growth temperature and to suppress autodoping. The fourth chapter addresses the growth of silicon on sapphire. This technology has been pursued for improving the radiation hardness of CMOS integrated circuits. In the fifth chapter, the most recent and novel advances in the application of silicon epitaxial growth are discussed. This chapter deals with the formation of epitaxial layers of silicon on insulators, such as silicon dioxide, which do not provide a natural single crystal surface for growth.
Readership: Engineers and technologists in the semiconductor industries.