Method of growing thick expitaxial layers of silicon
AssigneeRCA Corporation
InventorsNorman Goldsmith, Paul Harvey Robinson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Epitaxial layers of silicon, having thicknesses of at least about 25 .mu.m, are grown on the (100) or (111) planar surfaces of silicon substrates by the vapor deposition of silicon from the reaction of dichlorosilane and hydrogen gas in a reactor furnace. Good epitaxial layers of silicon of substantially uniform thicknesses are formed on the substrates when the growth rate of the epitaxial layer is between about 5 and 20 .mu.m/minute in the reactor furnace, and the latter is heated to a temperature of between about 1050.degree. and 1200.degree.C.
Claims4
A method of growing an epitaxial layer of silicon, having a thickness of at least about 25 .mu.m, on a surface of either a (100) or (111) plane of a substrate of single-crystal silicon, said method comprising the steps of:
- heating said surface to a temperatue of between about 1050.degree.C and about 1200.degree.C in a reactor furnace,
- etching said surface in said reactor furnace by passing a mixture of gases through said reactor furnace, at a velocity of about 20 cm/second, to remove a portion of said surface, said mixture of gases comprising about 1% HCl gas and about 99% hydrogen gas, by volume,
- purging said reactor furnace of said HCl gas by cutting off the supply of HCl gas in said mixture and either reducing the velocity of hydrogen gas or dropping the temperature in said reactor furnace until substantially all of said HCl gas is removed from said furnace, and
- introducing dichlorosilane and hydrogen gas into said reactor furnace, at a temperature of between about 1050.degree.C and 1200.degree.C, in a concentration to react said dichlorosilane with said hydrogen gas to grow said epitaxial layer of silicon on the etched surface at a rate of between about 5-20 .mu.m/minute.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.