I n s i t u substrate-surface cleaning for very low temperature silicon epitaxy by low-kinetic-energy particle bombardment

Abstract

A very low temperature in situ substrate‐surface cleaning process utilizing low‐kinetic‐energy particle bombardment has been developed. Dramatic improvements have been achieved in the crystallinity of epitaxial silicon films grown by the newly developed low‐kinetic‐energy particle process, in which argon ions having precisely controlled energies are continuously bombarding the film surface during the entire growth operation. With the optimized substrate‐surface cleaning conditions, in which the contaminants on the surface of silicon substrates are removed without introducing any damages to the substrates, the epitaxial silicon layer with a perfect crystallinity has been obtained at such very low temperatures below 350 °C.