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A Multiscale Model of the Si LPCVD Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Maurizio Rondanini
Affiliation:
Dept. of Chimica, Materiali e Ing. Chimica, “G. Natta” Via Mancinelli, 7 I-20131 Milano, Italy
Maurizio Masi
Affiliation:
Dept. of Chimica, Materiali e Ing. Chimica, “G. Natta” Via Mancinelli, 7 I-20131 Milano, Italy
Sergio Carrà
Affiliation:
Dept. of Chimica, Materiali e Ing. Chimica, “G. Natta” Via Mancinelli, 7 I-20131 Milano, Italy
Carlo Cavallotti
Affiliation:
Dept. of Chimica, Materiali e Ing. Chimica, “G. Natta” Via Mancinelli, 7 I-20131 Milano, Italy
Politecnico di Milano
Affiliation:
Dept. of Chimica, Materiali e Ing. Chimica, “G. Natta” Via Mancinelli, 7 I-20131 Milano, Italy
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Abstract

The Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition of Si from SiH4 is an industrial process that can be used to deposit epitaxial Si at relatively low surface temperatures. Multiscale models are necessary in order to tune the operating conditions to optimize the quality of the deposited materials. In this work we present a multiscale approach meant to describe the film morphological evolution at different time and length scales. The reactor fluid dynamics and overall mass and temperature balances are solved with the finite element method. The morphological evolution of the film is investigated with 3D kinetic Monte Carlo. We have systematically investigated the dependence of the growth morphology from temperature, pressure and gas phase composition (SiH4/H2 ratio) with the aim of determining the operating parameters window that can lead to the best film morphology. We found that the presence of a significant amount of hydrogen on the surface can significantly influence the surface morphology. In particular hydrogen can be considered as the principal responsible of the transition from an order terrace step flow growth regime, which prevails at high temperatures, to a disordered 3 dimensional growth regime. It is also worth noting that our KMC simulations show that the hydrogen surface chemistry active at low temperatures is probably richer than expected, since the formation of a significant number of island on the surface dramatically increases the concentration of steps, and thus the variety of configurations by which two adsorbed H atoms can interact.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

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References

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