Relaxed semiconductor layers with reduced defects and methods of forming the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9773906-B2
Application number	US-201615002078-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 20, 2016
Priority date	Apr 28, 2015
Publication date	Sep 26, 2017
Grant date	Sep 26, 2017

Abstract

Methods of forming a layer of silicon germanium include forming an epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x on a silicon substrate, wherein the epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x has a thickness that is less than a critical thickness, hc, at which threading dislocations form in Si 1-x Ge x on silicon; etching the epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x to form Si 1-x Ge x pillars that define a trench in the epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x , wherein the trench has a height and a width, wherein the trench has an aspect ratio of height to width of at least 1.5; and epitaxially growing a suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x from upper portions of the Si 1-x Ge x pillars, wherein the suspended layer defines an air gap in the trench beneath the suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x .

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of forming a layer of silicon germanium, comprising:
forming an epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x on a silicon substrate, wherein 0<x<1, wherein the epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x has a thickness that is less than a critical thickness, hc, and wherein threading dislocations form in Si 1-x Ge x on silicon above the critical thickness, hc;
etching the epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x to form Si 1-x Ge x pillars that define a trench in the epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x , wherein the trench has a height and a width, and wherein the trench has an aspect ratio of height to width of at least 1.5; and
epitaxially growing a suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x from upper portions of the Si 1-x Ge x pillars, wherein the suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x defines an air gap in the trench beneath the suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x .

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least the upper portions of the Si 1-x Ge x pillars are unstrained.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the Si 1-x Ge x pillars has a height of at least 10 nm.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trench has a width of less than 25 nm.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein etching the epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x comprises etching completely through the epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x to the silicon substrate.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein x increases in the suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x with distance from the silicon substrate.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein x decreases in the suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x with distance from the silicon substrate.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x is formed to be substantially unstrained and is formed to have a density of threading dislocations that is less than 10 4 /cm 2 .

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the Si 1-x Ge x pillars is formed to have a sufficient height that the upper portions of each of the Si 1-x Ge x pillars becomes substantially unstrained by elastic relaxation after formation of the trench.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trench has an aspect ratio of height to width greater than 3.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein surfaces of the Si 1-x Ge x pillars have a same crystallographic orientation.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the surfaces of the Si 1-x Ge x pillars have a <100> crystallographic orientation.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the Si 1-x Ge x pillars has a height, a width and a length, wherein the length is greater than the width, and wherein each of the Si 1-x Ge x pillars has an aspect ratio of height to width that is greater than about 1.

14. A method of forming a layer of silicon germanium, comprising:
forming an epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x on a silicon substrate, wherein 0<x<1, wherein the epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x has a thickness that is less than a critical thickness, hc, and wherein threading dislocations form in Si 1-x Ge x on silicon above the critical thickness, hc;
etching the epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x to form a plurality of Si 1-x Ge x pillars that define a plurality of trenches in the epitaxial layer of Si 1-x Ge x therebetween, wherein each of the plurality of trenches has a height, a width and a length, wherein the length of each of the plurality of trenches is greater than the width of each of the plurality of trenches, and wherein each of the plurality of trenches has an aspect ratio of height to width of at least 1.5; and
epitaxially growing a suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x from upper portions of the plurality of Si 1-x Ge x pillars, wherein the suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x defines air gaps in the plurality of trenches beneath the suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x .

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein surfaces of each of the plurality of Si 1-x Ge x pillars have a same crystallographic orientation.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of Si 1-x Ge x pillars is formed in a repeating pattern.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein each of the plurality of Si 1-x Ge x pillars has a height such that at least an upper half of each of the plurality of Si 1-x Ge x pillars meets a criterion for complete elastic relaxation.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein x varies in the suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x .

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein surfaces of each of the plurality of Si 1-x Ge x pillars have a <100> crystallographic orientation.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein x varies in the suspended layer of Si 1-x Ge x .

Assignees

• Wang Wei-E
• Rodder Mark S
• Hedge Ganesh
• Bowen Christopher
• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Wang Wei-E
• Rodder Mark S
• Hedge Ganesh
• Bowen Christopher

Classifications

• H10P50/692

  characterised by their composition, e.g. multilayer masks or materials · CPC title

• H10P14/3411

  Silicon, silicon germanium or germanium · CPC title

• H10P14/3256

  Microstructure · CPC title

• H10P14/3211

  Silicon, silicon germanium or germanium · CPC title

• H10P14/2926

  Crystal orientations · CPC title