Formation of strain-inducing films

A method of forming a semiconductor structure comprising:

• forming a substrate comprising an amorphous region and a crystalline region;
• depositing non-selectively in a process chamber a two-component epitaxial layer above said amorphous region and above said crystalline region of said substrate, wherein said two-component epitaxial layer is comprised of carbon-doped silicon, and wherein the depositing of said two-component epitaxial layer comprises first flowing the deposition gases SiH4, CH3SiH3 and H2 in a ratio of 300:55:500 sccm for about 1 minute and then doing a hydrogen gas purge at 1 slm for about 1 minute;
• and then, without removing said substrate from said chamber,
• etching in said process chamber said two-component epitaxial layer, wherein etching said two-component epitaxial layer removes the portion of said two-component epitaxial layer above said amorphous region of said substrate, wherein etching said two-component epitaxial layer does not remove the portion of said two-component epitaxial layer above said crystalline region of said substrate, and wherein the etching of said two-component epitaxial layer comprises first flowing the etch gases Cl2 and H2 in the ratio 16 sccm:1 slm for about 45 seconds and then doing a hydrogen gas purge at 2 slm for about 2 minutes;
• repeating the depositing and etching steps in said process chamber until a two-component epitaxial film of a desired thickness is formed above said crystalline region of said substrate;
• implanting charge-carrier dopant impurity atoms into said two-component epitaxial film to form a three-component amorphous film;
• and
• crystallizing said three-component amorphous film with a kinetically-driven crystallization process to form a three-component epitaxial film.

A method of forming a semiconductor structure comprising:

• forming a gate dielectric layer above a channel region in a crystalline substrate;
• forming a gate electrode above said gate dielectric layer;
• forming amorphous dielectric gate isolating spacers adjacent to the sidewalls of said gate electrode;
• forming an amorphous gate electrode protecting layer above said gate electrode forming a source/drain region in said crystalline substrate;
• removing a portion of said crystalline substrate, including said source/drain region, to form an etched-out region in said crystalline substrate;
• depositing non-selectively in a process chamber a two-component epitaxial layer above said etched-out region in said crystalline substrate, above said amorphous dielectric gate isolating spacers, and above said amorphous gate electrode protecting layer, wherein said two-component epitaxial layer is comprised of carbon-doped silicon, and wherein the depositing of said two-component epitaxial layer comprises first flowing the deposition gases SiH4, CH3SiH3 and H2 in a ratio of 300:55:500 sccm for about 1 minute and then doing a hydrogen gas purge at 1 slm for about 1 and then without removing said substrate from said chamber,
• etching in said process chamber said two-component epitaxial layer, wherein etching said two-component epitaxial layer removes the portion of said two-component epitaxial layer above said amorphous dielectric gate isolating spacers and above said amorphous gate electrode protecting layer, wherein etching said two-component epitaxial layer does not remove the portion of said two-component epitaxial layer above said etched-out region in said crystalline substrate, and wherein the etching of said two-component epitaxial layer comprises first flowing the etch gases Cl2 and H2 in the ratio 16 sccm:1 slm for about 45 seconds and then doing a hydrogen gas purge at 2 slm for about 2 minutes;
• repeating the depositing and etching steps in said process chamber until a two-component epitaxial film of a desired thickness is formed above said etched-out region in said crystalline substrate;
• implanting charge-carrier dopant impurity atoms into said two-component epitaxial film to form a three-component amorphous film;
• and
• crystallizing said three-component amorphous film with a kinetically-driven crystallization process to form a three-component epitaxial film.