A New Method for the Epitaxial Growth of Silicon and Its Thermodynamical Analysis

A new continuous method for growing epitaxial silicon films of better quality is developed. The principle of this method is based on a thermodynamical result that the H2-SiCl4 system involving seed silicon crystals tends to the growth reaction in a restricted temperature range, while otherwise it tends to the etching reaction. By in situ etching the substrates with H2-SiCl4 just before the deposition, the substrate surfaces can be free from contamination and crystal defects. Immediately after the etching, the epitaxial layers are grown in the same reactor. The deposition or etching rate can be qualitatively estimated from the thermodynamical calculation using the extended quasi-equilibrium model.