Low-temperature silicon epitaxy using low pressure chemical vapor deposition with and without plasma enhancement

Specular epitaxial silicon films have been deposited at 775 °C using a low pressure chemical vapor deposition process both with and without plasma enhancement. This is the lowest silicon epitaxial deposition temperature reported for thermally driven chemical vapor deposition. It was found that the predeposition in situ cleaning of the surface, rather than any plasma effects during the deposition, was essential for achieving epitaxial growth at this low temperature. Surface cleaning in these experiments was done by sputtering the wafer in an argon plasma at 775 °C with a dc bias applied to the susceptor. This is the lowest pre-epitaxial cleaning temperature reported for thermally driven chemical vapor deposition.