Rapid Thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition

Abstract

Rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (RTCVD) is a relatively new development in rapid thermal processing. Although it is being applied to a range of materials, the potential for further development is great. The earliest work was on single-crystal epitaxial silicon by Gibbons and colleagues [1] who referred to the process as limited reaction processing (LRP). One of the principal advantages of RTCVD is that sharp transitions are obtained between layers of differing composition or doping, while exposing the substrate to a much lower thermal budget than a furnace low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process. The maximum temperature reached is typically higher, however, providing good crystal quality and dopant activation. Applications of lightly doped epitaxially grown silicon on heavily doped silicon substrates include the fabrication of CMOS devices with reduced latch-up, and high-frequency bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) with a lightly doped base region on a heavily doped buried layer.