Epitaxial deposition process and apparatus

Abstract

An epitaxial deposition process including a dry etch process, followed by an epitaxial deposition process is disclosed. The dry etch process involves placing a substrate to be cleaned into a processing chamber to remove surface oxides. A gas mixture is introduced into a plasma cavity, and the gas mixture is energized to form a plasma of reactive gas in the plasma cavity. The reactive gas enters into the processing chamber and reacts with the substrate, forming a thin film. The substrate is heated to vaporize the thin film and expose an epitaxy surface. The epitaxy surface is substantially free of oxides. Epitaxial deposition is then used to form an epitaxial layer on the epitaxy surface.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to an epitaxial deposition method, system and equipment, in particular to an epitaxial deposition method, system and equipment for removing surface oxides before the epitaxial process by using a cleaning process. Background technique [0002] Epitaxial layers are crystalline films grown on crystalline substrates. The underlying substrate acts as a template for the grown film so that the crystalline pattern characteristics of the epitaxial layer can be defined by the underlying crystalline substrate. That is, the crystalline substrate provides the crystalline pattern seeds for epitaxial growth. The substrate is, for example, single crystal silicon, silicon germanium or silicon-on-insulator wafer (SOI wafer). [0003] Growth of epitaxial layers is usually achieved using chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The substrate wafer is loaded into a CVD reactor and then filled with an inert gas—for example, helium (He), argon (Ar), ...

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Problems solved by technology

Finally, selectivity issues with hydrofluoric acid solutions used in silicon substrates increase with silicon oxynitride etch rates

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