Multiwafer atmospheric‐pressure MOVPE reactor for nitride semiconductors and ex‐situ dry cleaning of reactor components using chlorine gas for stable operation

Abstract

AbstractWe describe an atmospheric‐pressure MOVPE reactor with a capacity of 2 inch by 10 or 3 inch by 8. In this reactor, the parasitic reaction of particulate generation is suppressed by adopting a high‐flow‐speed design. As a result of suppressing of the parasitic reaction, we have also grown GaN at a growth rate of more than 28 μm/hr at atmospheric pressure. It is also important to grow a heterostructure of Al‐containing alloys continuously to enable device applications, while maintaining the proper growth conditions for other layers such as GaN:Mg. An Al0.09Ga0.91N layer has been grown at a growth rate of 1 μm/h at atmospheric pressure. In the production environment, it is also essential to operate a reactor under a stable condition. To this end, we have adopted ex‐situ dry cleaning of all reactor components with deposits on them after every growth run. Dry cleaning was conducted using chemical etching of the deposit by chlorine gas in a hot tube reactor at about 800 °C. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)