VLSI Technology

MBE and SOI

 Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)
• Molecular beam epitaxy is a technique for
epitaxial growth via the interaction of one or
several molecular or atomic beams that occurs on
a surface of a heated crystalline substrate.
• The solid sources materials are placed in
evaporation cells to provide an angular
distribution of atoms or molecules in a beam. The
substrate is heated to the necessary temperature
and, when needed, continuously rotated to
improve the growth homogeneity.
 Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)
• Objective: To deposit single crystal thin films

• Inventors: J.R. Arthur and Alfred Y. Chuo (Bell Labs,

1960)

• Very/Ultra high vacuum (10-8 Pa)

• Important aspect: slow deposition rate (1 micron/hour)

• Slow deposition rates require proportionally better

vacuum.
 Molecular Beam Epitaxy: Process
• Ultra-pure elements are heated in separate quasi-
knudson effusion cells (e.g., Ga and As) until they begin
to slowly sublimate.

• Gaseous elements then condense on the wafer, where

they may react with each other (e.g., GaAs).

• The term “beam” means the evaporated atoms do not

interact with each other or with other vacuum
chamber gases until they reach the wafer.
 Process diagnostics
• RHEED (Reflection High Energy Electron
Diffraction) is used to monitor the growth of the
crystal layers.

• Computer controlled shutters of each furnace

allows precise control of the thickness of each
layer, down to a single layer of atoms.

• Intricate structures of layers of different materials

can be fabricated this way e.g., semiconductor
lasers, LEDs.
 Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)
Molecular beam epitaxy differs from vapor-phase
epitaxy (VPE) in that it employs evaporation
[instead of deposition] method. Thus it is a non-
CVD epitaxial process. Although the method has
been known since the early 1960s, it has recently
been considered a suitable technology for silicon
device fabrication.
In the MBE process the silicon along with dopants is
evaporated. The evaporated species are
transported at a relatively high velocity in a
vacuum to the substrate.
• The relatively low vapor pressure of silicon
and the dopants ensures condensation on a
low-temperature substrate. Usually, silicon
MBE is performed under ultra-high vacuum
[UHV] conditions of 10-8 to l0-16 Torr.
• The two major reasons why MBE was not used
were in earlier years were that the quality was
not comparable with device needs and that no
industrial equipment existed. Equipments are
now available, but the process has low
throughput and is expensive.
.
 Points
• Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)
– Relies on the sublimation of ultrapure elements,
then condensation of them on wafer
– In a vacuum chamber (pressure: ~10-11 Torr).
– “Beam”: molecules do not collide to either
chamber walls or existent gas atoms.
– Growth rate: 1µm/hr.
 MBE: Working Principle
➢ Epitaxial growth: Due to the
interaction of molecular or atomic
beams on a surface of a heated
crystalline substrate.
➢ The solid source materials sublimate
➢ They provide an angular distribution of atoms
or molecules in a beam.
➢ The substrate is heated to the necessary
temperature.
➢ The gaseous elements then condense on the
wafer where they may react with each other.
A typical MBE system*

➢ Atoms on a clean surface are free to move

until finding correct position in the crystal
lattice to bond.
➢ Growth occurs at the step edges formed:
More binding forces at an edge.
Molecular Beam Epitaxy**

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MBE: Working Conditions
▪ The mean free path (l) of the
particles > geometrical size of the
chamber (10-5 Torr is sufficient)

Mean free path for Nitrogen molecules at 300 K *

▪Ultra-high vacuum (UHV= 10-11Torr) to obtain sufficiently clear epilayer.
▪Gas evalution from materials has to be as low as possible. Pyrolytic boron
nitride (PBN) is chosen for crucibles (Chemically stable up to 1400°C)
▪Molybdenum and tantalum are widely used for shutters.
▪Ultrapure materials are used as source.

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 Benefits and Drawbacks of MBE
Advantages Disadvantages
◼ Clean surfaces, free of an oxide layer ◼ Expensive (106 $ per MBE chamber)
◼instability
◼ In-situ deposition of metal seeds,
semiconductor materials, and dopants

◼ Low growth rate (1μm/h) ◼ Very complicated system

◼ Precisely controllable thermal evaporation ◼ Epitaxial growth under ultra-high vacuum

conditions

◼ Seperate evaporation of each component

◼ Substrate temperature is not high

◼ Ultrasharp profiles

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 Advantages
MBE does have a number of inherent advantages
over CVD techniques:
It is a low temperature process. Thus outdiffusion
and autodoping is minimized.
It allows precise control of doping and permits
complicated doping profiles to be generated, This
is useful for discrete microwave devices.
A linear voltage -capacitance relationship is desired
for varactor diodes used in FM modulators. For
this linear doping profile is required, which is
easily obtained with MBE.
 CVD Reactors

Atmospheric-pressure chemical vapor

deposition (APCVD)
Low-pressure chemical vapor deposition
(LPCVD), and
Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition
(PECVD) or plasma deposition
The major advantages of low-pressure CVD
processes are
• Uniform step coverage
• Precise control of composition and structure
• Low temperature processing
• Fast deposition rates
• High throughput
• Low processing costs
• Advantages – LPCVD Reactor
• Excellent uniformity,
• Large load size
• Ability to accommodate large diameter wafers
• Disadvantages – LPCVD Reactor
• Low deposition rate
• Frequent use of toxic corrosive or flammable
gases
• Advantages – APCVD Reactor
• High throughput
• Good uniformity
• Ability to handle large diameter wafers
• Disadvantages – APCVD Reactor
• Fast gas flows are required, and
• Reactors must be cleaned frequently
 Reasons for SOI
• Replacement for SOS
• Need to extend Moore’s Law
• Commercial Availability of SOI wafers
 Advantages of SOI
• Reduced Source and Drain to Substrate
Capacitance.
• Absence of Latchup.
• Lower Passive current.
• Denser Layout → Low cost.
 Applications
Current SOI products
high speed processors
IBM and Motorola : Power PC(tm)
AMD : Athlon(tm) 64
Graphic processor
Sony/IBM/Toshiba : PlayStation3
High speed serial data communication
Mitsubishi Electric : 10Gbps SERDES
Ultra-low power SoC
OKI : solar cell watch
Future applications
Low-power digital applications are the next target as SOI CMOS is becoming
a mainstream technology and power dissipation is the main concern.
SOI CMOS technologies are the most suitable technologies to produce RF
Systems on Chip, combining the low-power advantage for the digital part
and the high RF performance enabled by the full dielectric isolation of
the SOI substrate and the ability to use a high-resistivity substrate
(minimizing crosstalk and substrate losses).