Role of dopant incorporation in low-temperature Si epitaxial growth by rapid thermal processing chemical vapor deposition

The authors have demonstrated that epitaxial growth temperatures can be lowered by dopant incorporation using rapid thermal processing chemical vapor deposition. Heavily As- and B-doped epitaxial layers with very abrupt dopant transition profiles and relatively uniform carrier distributions have been grown at 800°C. The film quality and defect formation were strongly dependent on the electrically active dopant concentration. The defect density as a function of electron concentration shows a sharp transition at 3×10¹⁸ cm^-3 for As-doped epitaxy. For B-doped epitaxy, the film quality was monocrystalline with smooth surface morphology for hole concentrations above 5×10¹⁹ cm^-3