High Speed Integrated Circuit Using Silicon Molecular Beam Epitaxy (Si‐MBE)

Si‐MBE is a low temperature deposition method for epitaxial silicon layers with thickness and doping profile control on a submicron level. The MBE equipment described in detail is designed for high throughput of round wafers (ten 3 in. wafers per day). The apparatus consists of six subsystems, the reliable and simple operation of which has been proved during a 2 yr test period. For the first time we report on fabrication of high performance integrated circuits using Si‐MBE material. Frequency dividers were fabricated using, apart from MBE, a commercial process line. Clock frequencies of up to 2.8 GHz were realized by these dividers with integrated transistors with transit frequencies up to 7 GHz.