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AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsJerome J. Cuomo, Thomas H. DiStefano, Robert Rosenberg
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A method is disclosed for fabricating a thin elemental semiconductor, e.g., Si or Ge, film with columnar grains in a filamentary structure, by the use of an intermetallic compound incorporating the elemental semiconductor to form a nucleating layer for the growth of the semiconducting film. The semiconductor is grown from vapor phase by the technique of either vacuum evaporation or chemical vapor deposition, e.g., by decomposition of SiH.sub.4. The semiconductor e.g., Si, is initially deposited onto a thin film of a specific metal, e.g., Pt or Ni, on any inert substrate, e.g., SiO.sub.2 or Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, which is held at a temperature, e.g., 900.degree. C, above the eutectic point, i.e., 830.degree. C, of an intermetallic compound and the metallic film, and below the eutectic point, i.e., 979.degree. C, of another intermetallic compound and the semiconductor. Deposition of the semiconductor onto the metallic film produces a layer of liquid comprising the semiconductor and metal, which increases in thickness until the metallic layer is completely consumed. Additional deposition of the semiconductor produces a supersaturated liquid from which large crystallites of the intermetallic precipitate. With increasing deposition of semiconductor, the crystallites of intermetallic material continue to grow until they consume all of the metal in the liquid, at which point no liquid remains. Continuing deposition of semiconductor material results in the growth of filamentary crystallites of the semiconductor out of the intermetallic surface. The result is a columnar film of the semiconductor with a filamentary structure originating from the crystallites of intermetallic nucleating material.
Method for the controlled growth of a polycrystalline semiconductor material with course columnar grains comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.