Hetero-epitaxial growth of non-lattice matched semiconductors
AssigneeAstroPower, Inc.
InventorsNancy Terranova, Allen M. Barnett
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Abstract
A method for growing a compound semiconductor, such as GaAs or InP, on a non-lattice matched substrate, such as Si, utilizes close-spaced vapor transport to deposit nucleation enhancing interlayer and liquid phase epitaxy to form the compound semiconductor. When used in conjunction with a growth mask, the method is also adapted to selective area epitaxy.
Claims26
A process for forming a layer of compound semiconductor material on a nonlattice matched substrate comprising the steps of forming a growth mask on a surface of the substrate, forming openings in the growth mask to expose areas of the substrate, forming an interlayer only on the exposed areas of the substrate by close-spaced-vapor-transport on the exposed areas in the openings of the growth mask, and forming the compound semiconductor layer over the interlayer by liquid phase epitaxy and using the interlayer in the exposed areas to seed the growth of the compound semiconductor layer.
A process for fabricating a light emitting diode on a silicon substrate comprising the steps of:
- forming a silicon dioxide growth mask having an array of openings on the surface of the substrate;
- forming only on the exposed areas of substrate by close-spaced-vapor-transport growth on the exposed areas in openings in the growth mask an interlayer of a doped semiconductor material which functions as a base region of the light emitting diode and as a nucleation enhancing interlayer;
- and forming an emitter region of an oppositely doped compound semiconductor material over the interlayer by liquid phase epitaxy and using the interlayer in the exposed areas to seed the growth of the compound semiconductor material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.