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US 2010/0244197 A1Published application
Epitaxial methods and structures for reducing surface dislocation density in semiconductor materials
AssigneesS.O.I.Tec Silicon on Insulator Technologies, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique
InventorsChantal Arena, Laurent Clavelier, Marc Rabarot
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Abstract
The invention provides methods and structures for reducing surface dislocations of a semiconductor layer, and can be employed during the epitaxial growth of semiconductor structures and layers comprising III-nitride materials. Embodiments involve the formation of a plurality of dislocation pit plugs to prevent propagation of dislocations from an underlying layer of material into a following semiconductor layer of material.
Claims15
A method of forming a semiconductor structure, comprising:
- providing a semiconductor layer having a primary semiconductor surface comprising a plurality of surface pits associated with emergent dislocations;
- masking a plurality of the emergent dislocations with caps fabricated from a first masking layer, each cap extending at least partially into a surface pit of the plurality of surface pits;
- removing a portion of the semiconductor layer to form a secondary semiconductor surface;
- forming a plurality of spacer structures adjacent to the caps from a second masking layer, the caps and spacer structures together forming a plurality of dislocation pit plugs;
- and
- growing a following semiconductor layer from the secondary semiconductor surface over the plurality of dislocation pit plugs and producing a substantially continuous following semiconductor layer with fewer dislocations than the primary semiconductor layer.
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A semiconductor structure comprising:
- a first semiconductor layer having an upper surface comprising a plurality of surface pits, the surface pits intersecting emergent dislocations in the first semiconductor layer;
- a plurality of dislocation pit plugs, each dislocation pit plug masking at least one of the emergent dislocations, each dislocation pit plug of the plurality comprising:
- a first masking structure disposed at least partially within a surface pit of the plurality of surface pits;
- and
- a second masking structure adjacent to the upper surface of the first semiconductor layer and adjacent to the first masking structure;
- and
- a following semiconductor layer covering the plurality of dislocation pit plugs;
- wherein the following semiconductor layer has a lower density of surface dislocations than the first semiconductor layer.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.