Abstract
The kinetics of very-low-temperature silicon epitaxial growth on p-type, <100> Si wafers by confined plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) from mixtures of SiH <sub>4</sub> and H <sub>2</sub> is studied. The results show that no effect due to temperature (288 ~ 351°C) on the growth rate could be observed. At a plasma power of 5 W, the P <sub>SiH4</sub> /p <sub>H2</sub> ratio can be as high as 2.7. The growth rate is inversely proportional to the H <sub>2</sub> pressure, and proportional to the silane pressure and the RF power. The mechanism of silicon epitaxial growth by confined PECVD is presented and the release of hydrogen from adsorbed SiH <sub>x</sub> (x = 2,3) seems to be the rate-determining step. It is found that a single Langmuir-Hinshelwood rate expression correlates all rate data with RF powers and pressures of silane and hydrogen. © 1994, The Electrochemical Society, Inc. All rights reserved.