Effect of silicon source gas on silicon-germanium chemical vapor deposition kinetics at atmospheric pressure

Abstract

Epitaxial Si1−xGex alloy layers have been deposited in an atmospheric-pressure, chemical-vapor-deposition reactor using dichlorosilane, silane, and disilane, along with germane. The deposition rate increases and the Ge content decreases with increasing reactivity of the silicon-containing gas. The rate increases monotonically with increasing Ge content in the layer for all three gases, in contrast to the behavior seen in systems operating at substantially lower total deposition pressures, suggesting that the differences in previously reported behavior are dominated by the different operating-pressure regimes, rather than the different silicon source gases.