Silicon Vapour Epitaxy

Abstract

The technique of vapour epitaxial growth has found widespread usage in semiconductor device technology. From the time it was used to improve the high frequency performance of transistors in the early 1960's, the technique has become a very important part of the silicon integrated circuits today. The advantage which vapour epitaxy offers over techniques like diffusion is in providing alternate P, N layers without any impurity compensation. The technique is also very useful in incorporating desired impurity concentrations in alternate layers. An attempt has been made by the authors to grow epitaxial layers of silicon by the hydrogen reduction of silicon tetrachloride. The paper presents the results obtained, after describing the set-up employed for the growth experiments.