This invention relates to silicon-carbon and silicon germanium-carbon based materials system and more specifically, to a novel method and apparatus for depositing single crystal and poly crystalline layers of silicon-carbon (Si:C) and silicon germanium-carbon (SiGe:C) on a plurality of substrates at low temperatures and low pressures. A multiple wafer, low temperature growth technique is described for incorporating carbon epitaxially into Si and SiGe with very abrupt and well defined junctions, without any associated oxygen background contamination. Preferably, these silicon carbon alloy films are device quality, epitaxial layers which can be in-silicon-carbon and silicon germanium-carbon layers to form the base region of a high speed heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT). The incorporation of a low concentration of carbon <1020 atoms cm−3 into the SiGe base region of a HBT can suppress boron outdiffision and allow the use of high boron doping levels (>>1019 cm−3) in a very thin SiGe base region (<20 nm) without suffering the effects of boron outdiffusion from post-epitaxial thermal processing and anneals.
The next generation of SiGe HBTs suitable for wireless telecommunication systems, which operate at radio or microwave frequencies will be designed and targeted for very high speed SiGe bipolar devices having fT and fmax of over 100 GHz. Presently, state of the art SiGe-base heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT's) employ a graded SiGe structure to introduce an accelerating field across the base region in order to achieve high frequency performance from 45 to 90 GHz. Hence, to achieve SiGe bipolar devices with fT and fmax of over 100 GHz, another device enhancement or improvement will be required for the present graded SiGe based transistors. One possibility for performance enhancement is the scaling of the base width of the device, which is very difficult to achieve in manufacturing due to punch through of the base region. The key difficulty associated with base width scaling is in controlling the corresponding increase of the base doping to a high doping concentration to avoid punch through, which is very difficult to achieve in manufacturing. The effect of the base thickness on the high frequency performance of SiGe HBTs has been reported in a publication by E. Kasper et. al. entitled “Growth of 100 GHz SiGe-Heterobipolar Transistor (HBT) Structures”, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 33 Pt. 1, No. 4B, April 1994, pp. 2415-2418 which is incorporated herein by reference. The reference showed a steady increase of fT with the decreasing of the SiGe-base thicknesses. For example, starting with HBT's with a 65 nm base thickness which did not exceed 20 GHz, transistors with a thinner 40 nm base width had yielded 37-52 GHz, while devices with even thinner 28-30 nm bases had exhibited even higher fT in the range of 58-91 GHz. Moreover, when the effective base thickness was further scaled down below 50% to a 25 nm or 22 nm base thickness an extremely high fT of 95-100 Hz was achieved corresponding to a n increase of 4-5 times in fT and demonstrating the influence of base thickness on the speed of the bipolar transistor. However, it is important to note that in these very narrow base SiGe transistors the base doping concentration was in the extremely high range of about 8×1019 boron/cm3 which is necessary in order to maintain a base sheet resistance of about 1.2 K-Ohm in such a thin 20 nm base region without punchthrough.
Subsequently, in order to combine and benefit from both these critical device enhancements for high speed performances in the present SiGe npn bipolar transistors, very high Ge content and more importantly very high boron doping concentration will be required in a thinner base region to achieve lower base sheet resistance and higher fmax transistor performance. A heavily doped SiGe base profile will effectively have a smaller band gap in the strained SiGe base offering a lower barrier for electron injection into the base and importantly, maintaining a lower base resistance and shorter transit time with the use of a thinner and highly doped boron doped SiGe base structure. However, such a thin heavily doped SiGe layered structure is very susceptible to dopant out-diffusion or re-distribution due to high concentration gradients during thermal treatments in the manufacturing process. In fact, one of the key problems in the present SiGe npn BiCMOS technology of one major manufacturer is to retain the narrow as-grown boron profile within the SiGe base layer and eliminate the undesirable out-diffusion of boron from the base region caused by heat treatments or transient enhanced diffusion (TED) from post-epitaxial processing of annealing implantation damages and CMOS integrations. Unfortunately, out diffusion of boron does present a severe problem since it limits the final achievable base-width in the base of the bipolar transistor regardless of how narrow the base-width may have been originally generated. Moreover, in cases where the boron diffuses or extends outside of the SiGe base region this can cause undesirable conduction band barriers to be formed at the base-collector junction which will degrade the collector current and subsequently the high frequency performance of the bipolar device.
The classic solution to this problem has been to accommodate the out-diffusion of boron rather than to resolve it, i.e. is to grow an extended undoped spacer of SiGe on either side of the doped base region between the emitter and collector regions. However, in such a case the technological problem then reverts back to minimizing and adjusting the thickness of the SiGe spacer layers in order to avoid strain-induced defect formation within the SiGe base structure. Moreover, even then, the thicknesses of the undoped spacer layers selected to alleviate or accommodate the out-diffusion problem is still restricted and limited by critical thickness considerations and there may not be suitable spacer layers to accommodate the out-diffusion of boron problem. The ideal solution to prevent or reduce the boron base dopant out-diffusion from occurring is a well known chemical effect that the presence or addition of carbon in a boron doped Si or SiGe layer can significantly reduce the out-diffusion of boron from the initial as-grown dopant profile. Moreover, H.J. Osten et. al., in the paper entitled “Carbon Doped SiGe Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors for High Frequency Applications”, IEEE BCTM 7.1, 1999, pp 109-116, which is incorporated herein by reference, have recently shown that low carbon concentration (<1020 atom.cm−3) can significantly suppress boron out-diffusion without affecting the strain or band alignment and successful applications of carbon-rich layers for SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors. Nevertheless, there exist a number of difficult material issues and problems associated with the growth of device quality SiC or SiGeC films. First, carbon has a very low equilibrium solid solubility in Si that is approximately 3.5×1017 atoms.cm−3 (<10−3 atomic %) at its melting point and it is even lower at the typical growth temperatures <1000 C. Second, the presence of carbon contamination on a Si surface is know to disrupt the epitaxial growth and finally, there is a tendency to precipitate silicon carbide (beta-SiC) at high growth or annealing temperatures. Therefore, the biggest material problem is the ability to grow device quality Si:C and SiGe:C films at low temperatures, especially for the UHV-CVD process which is a fully manufacturable process currently being used in IBM's BiCMOS technology.
A prior technique of UHV-CVD for depositing and fabricating very thin epitaxial layers having abrupt transitions in dopant concentration between adjacent single crystal layers at low temperatures is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,680 which issued on May 25, 1999 to B. S. Meyerson entitled “Method and Apparatus for Low Temperature, Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition of Epitaxial Silicon Layers” and assigned to the assignee herein. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,680 an apparatus is described where the characteristic of the growth system is provided to have an ultrahigh vacuum integrity in the range of about 10−9 Torr prior to epitaxial deposition at temperatures of less than 800° C. Furthermore, the epitaxial silicon or silicon germanium layers can be doped in-situ to provide very abrupt defined regions of either n- or p-type conductivity. However, a suitable method for depositing silicon-carbon or silicon germanium-carbon by this technique has not yet been described.
The ability to grow and achieve high carbon concentrations in both device quality Si and SiGe films at low temperatures (<550° C.) has not been demonstrated by any other growth techniques or processes suitable for batch-size, manufacturing operations. There are, however, low temperature growth techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), solid phase epitaxy regrowth and rapid thermal CVD (RT-CVD) which have been successfully employed to grow SiC and SiGeC layers with carbon levels up to 1%-3% carbon but often the material quality is not suitable for device applications.
In accordance with the present invention, an apparatus and process for achieving epitaxial silicon carbon and silicon germanium carbon films without the above mentioned problems is described, and in particular a manufacturable technique for batch processing of multiple wafers for the growth of expitaxial silicon carbon or silicon germanium carbon films thereon is provided. Furthermore, the fabrication of very thin epitaxial layers of silicon carbon or silicon germanium carbon having abrupt transitions of several atomic widths in carbon concentration between adjacent single crystal layers, which cannot be achieved by any prior art techniques, is provided. In the present invention, the temperatures and pressures of the growth technique are much less than those utilized in the prior art, and are such that the growth process is nonequilibrium in nature whereby the growth kinetics on the silicon containing surface, rather than the equilibrium thermodynamics of the inlet gases, dictate the deposition process. A hot wall, isothermal CVD apparatus as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,680 is utilized whereby essentially no homogeneous gas phase pyrolysis of the silicon and/or carbon precursor such as silane or ethylene source gas occurs during the residence time, which is less than 1 second, within the selected temperature regime where the growth process is operated. Similar to U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,680 heterogeneous chemistry where kinetic reactions at the surface of the substrate occur by design of method and apparatus, are the primary determinants of epitiaxial deposition of silicon carbon and silicon germanium carbon films.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing epitaxial single crystal deposition of silicon carbon layers in a batch process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature epitaxy of silicon carbon layers having very low concentrations of oxygen contaminants in the SiC layers, preferably less than 1×1017 O atoms cm−3.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature epitaxy of silicon carbon layers in the temperature range from 475° C. to 850° C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing epitaxial single crystal deposition of silicon germanium carbon layers in a batch process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature epitaxy of silicon germanium carbon layers having very low concentrations of oxygen contaminants in the SiGeC layers, preferably less than 1×1017 O atoms cm−3.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature epitaxy of silicon germanium carbon layers in the temperature range from 350° C. to 850° C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing polycrystalline deposition of silicon carbon layers in a batch process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature polycrystalline deposition of silicon carbon layers having very low concentrations of oxygen contaminants in the SiC layers, preferably less than 1×1017 O atoms cm−3.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature deposition of polycrystalline silicon carbon layers in the temperature range from 475° C. to 1200° C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing deposition of polycrystalline silicon germanium carbon layers in a batch process.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature deposition of polycrystalline silicon germanium carbon layers having very low concentrations of oxygen contaminants in the SiGeC layers, preferably less than 1×1017 O atoms cm3.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling low temperature deposition of polycrystalline silicon germanium carbon layers in the temperature range from 350° C. to 1200° C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing in-situ p- or n-type doping of epitaxial single crystal silicon carbon layers which can withstand furnace anneals to temperatures of 850° C. and rapid thermal anneal temperatures to 1000° C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing in-situ p- or n-type doping of polycrystalline silicon carbon layers which can withstand furnace anneals to temperatures of 850° C. and rapid thermal anneal temperatures to 1000° C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing in-situ p- or n-type doping of epitaxial single crystal silicon germanium carbon layers which can withstand furnace anneals to temperatures of 850° C. and rapid thermal anneal temperatures to 1000° C.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for performing in-situ p- or n-type doping of polycrystalline silicon germanium carbon layers which can withstand furnace anneals to temperatures of 850° C. and rapid thermal anneal temperatures to 1000° C.
These and other features, objects, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention when read in conjunction with the drawing in which:
This invention is an apparatus and process for depositing epitaxial single crystal silicon carbon and silicon germanium carbon layers of a desired thickness on a silicon containing substrate, and in particular to provide a process whereby single crystal silicon carbon alloy layers can be epitaxially deposited on a multitude of substrates. These silicon carbon and silicon germanium carbon alloy films are of high crystallographic perfection suitable for device applications and furthermore, can be in-situ doped to any desired levels without any oxygen contamination which is detrimental to device performances. The present invention of growing silicon carbon and silicon germanium carbon films, i.e. SiC, SiC:B, SiC:P, SiGeC, SiGeC:B, SiGeC:P utilizes the UHV-CVD technique for growing epitaxial Si and SiGe films on a silicon containing substrate. For a description of the UHV-CVD growth technique, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,452 which issued Mar. 29, 1994 to B. S. Meyerson and to U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,680 which issued May 25, 1999 to B. S. Meyerson which are incorporated herein by reference. A UHV-CVD reactor suitable for growing the above-mentioned silicon and silicon germanium containing films is available from Unaxis, Switzerland Epigress, Sweden, and CVD Equipment Corp., Ronkonkoma, N.Y., USA.
Referring to the drawing,
The substrate 16 shown in
First, a silicon germanium region or layer 22 is grown on surface 20 where the germanium concentration is about 15 atomic % shown by curve portion 22. Next, the germanium precursor is turned off and the ethylene is turned on at a flow of 3 sccm to form silicon carbon. Curve portion 24 shows the concentration of carbon at 2.42×1020 atoms/cm−3. The corresponding layer or region 24′ is shown in
In Curve portion 132 the ethylene is turned off and at reference line 133, the temperature is increased from 500° C. to 525° C. After reference line 133, the growth conditions beginning with curve portion 122 are repeated as shown by curve portions 122′ to 130′ at 525° C. At reference line 135, the temperature is increased from 525° C. to 550° C. After reference line 135, the growth conditions beginning with curve portion 122 are repeated as shown by curve portions 122″ to 130″ at 550° C. Regardless of the temperature, the small concentrations of ethylene associated with the ethane mixture still shows carbon incorporation indicating that ethylene is the active precursor.
In curve portion 152, the ethane is turned off and at reference line 153, the temperature is increased from 500° C. to 525° C. After reference line 153, the growth conditions beginning with curve portion 142′ are repeated as shown by curve portions 142′, 144′, 146′, 148′, 150′ and 152′ at 525 C. At reference line 155, the temperature is increased from 525° C. to 550° C. After reference line 155, the growth conditions beginning with curve portion 142′ are repeated as shown by curve portions 142″, 144″, 146″, 148″, 150″ and 152″ at 550° C. Regardless of the temperature, the concentrations of 50% ethane associated with the ethane mixture still shows less carbon incorporation than the 10% ethane indicating that ethylene (450 ppm in the 10% ethane as measured) is the active precursor.
Curve 170 shows the carbon concentration as a function of depth. Curve portion 174 represents the ambient carbon concentration in the substrate which is 2×1017 atoms cm-3. Curve portion 176 represents the carbon at the silicon substrate interface formed by an epitaxial silicon layer grown on the substrate. The peak carbon concentration of curve portion 166 was 5×1018 atoms cm-3. Curve portion 178 shows the carbon concentration in the silicon layer which is about 3×1017 atoms cm-3. Curve portion 179 shows an apparent increase of carbon concentration near the silicon layer surface due to the presence of contaminants from the chamber ambient and residuals from the wafer cleaning process. The SIMS tool uses a Cs+ beam as the sputtering source.
The fact that there is no memory effect, is substantiated by the laboratory data given in Table 1. Table 1 provides data via SIMS measurements taken from 14 samples.
In the first column of Table 1, 14 different days over six months were used for growing a silicon film on a substrate similar to the silicon layer grown on a substrate as described in
In
A substantially Si layer was grown at curve portion 202 where the Ge concentration was about 4 percent. The Ge precursor was turned on again as shown by curve portion 204. In the middle of curve portion 204, the boron precursor and the carbon precursor gases were tuned on as shown by respective curve portions 206 and 208. The carbon precursor gas was C2H4. The boron precursor and the carbon precursor gases were then turned off. Thus a SiGeB:C layer was grown at the depth of curve portions 206 and 208. Then the Ge precursor gas was turned off as shown by curve portion 210 where a substantially silicon layer was grown with a Ge concentration of about 4 atomic percent. The Ge precursor gas was turned on again as shown by curve portion 212 and then turned off again. At the top surface, the carbon concentration and boron concentration increased due to contamination. In summary,
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/774,126 filed Jan. 30, 2001 by Chu et al. entitled “Incorporation of Carbon in Silicon/Silicon Germanium epitaxial layer to Enhance Yield for Si—Ge bipolar technology” (Docket No. BUR920000107US1) referred to above is directed to a method of fabricating a SiGe bipolar transistor including carbon in the collector region as well as the SiGe base region and is assigned to the assignee herein and incorporated herein by reference.
While there has been described and illustrated a method and structure for incorporating carbon into silicon and silicon germanium layers with or without in-situ doping and with abrupt concentration profiles and with low levels of oxygen, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variations are possible without deviating from the broad scope of the invention which shall be limited solely by the scope of the claims appended hereto.
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/618,770, filed Dec. 30, 2006, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/775,514 filed Feb. 10, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,183,576, issued on Feb. 27, 2007, which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/838,892, filed Apr. 20, 2001, which is now U.S. Pat. No. 6,750,119, issued Jun. 15, 2004. Cross-reference is made to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/774,126 filed Jan. 30, 2001, which is now U.S. Pat. No. 6,426,265 by Chu et al. entitled “Incorporation of Carbon in Silicon/Silicon Germanium epitaxial layer to Enhance Yield for Si—Ge bipolar technology” (Docket No. BUR920000107US1) which is directed to a method of fabricating a SiGe bipolar transistor including carbon in the collector region as well as the SiGe base region and which is assigned to the assignee herein and incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 09838892 | Apr 2001 | US |
Child | 10775514 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11618770 | Dec 2006 | US |
Child | 12163389 | US | |
Parent | 10775514 | Feb 2004 | US |
Child | 11618770 | US |