Silicon Nucleation on Silicon Dioxide and Selective Epitaxy In An Ultra-High Vacuum Raptid Thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition Reactor Using Disilane In Hydrogen

Silicon nucleation on silicon dioxide and selective silicon epitaxial growth (SEG) were studied in an ultra high vacuum rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (UHV-RTCVD) reactor. Experiments were performed using 10% Si2H6 in H2 in a pressure range of 10 - 100 mTorr at 760°C. Under these conditions, the growth rate ranged from 75 to 330 nm/minute. Loss of selectivity via Si island formation on SiO2 was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealing a strong dependence on deposition pressure. Cross sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) was employed to study the vertical oxide/epitaxy interface where faceting can occur. The incubation time for nucleation was found to increase from 10s to 70s as pressure is reduced from 100 mTorr to 10 mTorr, allowing thicker selective epitaxial film growth in spite of the reduced growth rates. This was attributed to the reduction in gas phase supersaturation of the Si containing species resulting in a lower density of adsorbed atoms on the SiO2 surface. This process shows a potential for chlorine free selective epitaxial growth and provides insight to the surface morphology of polycrystalline films deposited at low pressures.