LPCVD pressure

Dielectric Film Deposition. Dielectric films are found in all VLSI circuits to provide insulation between conducting layers, as diffusion and ion implantation (qv) masks, for diffusion from doped oxides, to cap doped films to prevent outdiffusion, and for passivating devices as a measure of protection against external contamination, moisture, and scratches. Properties that define the nature and function of dielectric films are the dielectric constant, the process temperature, and specific fabrication characteristics such as step coverage, gap-filling capabihties, density stress, contamination, thickness uniformity, deposition rate, and moisture resistance (2). Several processes are used to deposit dielectric films including atmospheric pressure CVD (APCVD), low pressure CVD (LPCVD), or plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) (see Plasma technology). 

CVD reactions are most often produced at ambient pressure in a freely flowing system. The gas flow, mixing, and stratification in the reactor chamber can be important to the deposition process. CVD can also be performed at low pressures (LPCVD) and in ultrahigh vacuum (UHVCVD) where the gas flow is molecular. The gas flow in a CVD reactor is very sensitive to reactor design, fixturing, substrate geometry, and the number of substrates in the reactor, ie, reactor loading. Flow uniformity is a particulady important deposition parameter in VPE and MOCVD. 

In this sub-subsection, the Er doping of amorphous silicon is discussed. The problem of limited solubility of Er in crystalline silicon has been circumvented. However, the electrical properties of pure a-Si are poor compared to c-Si. Therefore, hydrogenated amorphous silicon is much more interesting. Besides, the possibility of depositing a-Si H directly on substrates, i.e., optical materials, would make integration possible. Both low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) [664] and PECVD [665, 666] have been used to make the a-Si H into which Er is implanted. In both methods oxygen is intentionally added to the material, to enhance the luminescence. 

Low polarity plasticizers, 74 479 Low power package, 74 863 Low pressure catalytic processes, 20 151 Low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), 5 807, 811-812 Low-pressure gas separation, spiral-wound membrane modules for, 75 823-824 Low pressure hollow-fiber membranes, 76 24-26... 

A schematic view of the cold cathode fabrication process is shown in Fig. 10.18. The cold cathode is fabricated by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) of 1.5 pm of non-doped polysilicon on a silicon wafer or a metallized glass substrate. The topmost micrometer of polysilicon is then anodized (10 mA cnT2, 30 s) in ethanoic HF under illumination. This results in a porous layer with inclusions of larger silicon crystallites, due to faster pore formation along grain boundaries. After anodization the porous layer is oxidized (700 °C, 60 min) and a semi-transparent (10 nm) gold film is deposited as a top electrode. 

Low-Pressure CVD Processes. Low-pressure CVD (LPCVD) (—101 Pa) is the main tool for the production of polycrystalline Si dielectric and passivation films used in Si IC (integrated-circuit) manufacture (1, 20, 21). The main advantage of LPCVD is the large number of wafers that can be coated simultaneously without detrimental effects to film uniformity. This capability is a result of the large diffusion coefficient at low pressures, which... 

Numerous modeling studies of CVD reactors have been made and are summarized in recent review papers (I, 212). Table 3 in reference 212 lists major examples of CVD models up to mid-1986. Therefore, rather than giving an exhaustive list of previous work, Table V presents a summary of the major modeling approaches and forms the basis for the ensuing discussion, which is most appropriately handled in terms of two groups (1) hot-wall LPCVD systems and (2) cold-wall, near-atmospheric-pressure reactors. In LPCVD reactors, diffusion and surface reaction effects dominate, whereas in cold-wall reactors operated at near-atmospheric pressures, fluid flow and gas-phase reactions are important in predicting performance, as discussed earlier in relation to transport phenomena. 

The model is based on the schematic representation of the commercial reactor shown in Figure le. The wafers are supported concentrically and perpendicular to the flow direction within the tube. The heats of reaction associated with the deposition reactions are small because of the low growth rates obtained with LPCVD ( 2 A/s). Furthermore, at high temperatures (1000 K) and low pressures (100 Pa), radiation is the dominant heat-transfer mechanism. Therefore, temperature differences between wafers and the furnace wall will be small. This small temperature difference eliminates the need for an energy balance. Moreover, buoyancy-driven secondary flows are unlikely. In fact, because of the rapid diffusion, the details of the flow field... 

Another issue in LPCVD reactor modeling is the transition to molecular flow for which the continuum formulation breaks down. This transition may be important in the modeling of very low pressure CVD Si epitaxy (22, 23). Monte Carlo simulations of free molecular flow in a very low pressure CVD reactor for Si epitaxy were illustrated in Figure 7 and discussed in an earlier... 

LPCVD reactor modeling involves many of the same issues of multi-component diffusion reactions that have been studied in the past decade in connection with heterogeneous catalysis. Complex fluid-flow phenomena strongly affect the performance of atmospheric-pressure CVD reactors. Two-dimensional and some three-dimensional flow structures in the classical horizontal and vertical CVD reactors have been explored through flow visual-... 

In chemical vapor deposition (CVD) complex shaped surfaces can be coated with homogeneous layers, especially when carried out at low pressure (LPCVD, low pressure chemical vapor deposition) (review Ref. [410]). A gas reacts with the heated substrate surface to give a solid coating and gaseous by-products which have to be removed continously. Layer thicknesses created by chemical vapor deposition are usually in the order 5-10 pm.. In cases where it is necessary to keep the temperature low, a plasma can stimulate the surface reaction in plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). 

LPCVD Low-pressure chemical vapor deposition X Wavelength (nm)... 

A brief review of the literature concerning the several materials employed in the fabrication of both TIR and ARROW structures is given in Table 2. The processes employed are completely different, ranging from molecular beam epitaxy to several chemical vapor deposition (CVD) systems, such as low-pressure CVD (LPCVD) or plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD). As a rule, all suitable materials for ARROWS (and in general for IOCs) should have homogeneous refractive indexes, high mechanical and chemical stability, few... 

The wafers were coated with silicon dioxide (400 nm thickness) and silicon nitride by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) alternately. The chips were fabricated by photolithography and etching. The catalyst (for the application Pt) was introduced as a wire (150 pm thickness), which was heated resistively for igniting the reaction. The ignition of the reaction occurred at 100 °C and complete conversion was achieved at a stochiometric ratio of the reacting species generating a thermal power of 72 W (Figure 2.28). 

After the quality of the plasma silicon nitride films and their dependence on the several system parameters has been evaluated, there still remains the question of whether or not a given process can be commercially viable. Here the issue is the deposition rate and the uniformity of deposition on a wafer and over all wafers in the reactor. The ideal solution is to deposit at a high rate uniformly over many wafers at one time. We cannot simply stack many wafers close together and run a low-pressure process, as in thermal LPCVD, because we have to be sure the plasma discharge is uniform as well. 

Anicon claims this reactor can process up to one hundred 5" wafers at one time. Temperatures up to 740°C are available, and pressures of 250 mTorr to 10 Torr can be run. All LPCVD processes that were described earlier in Chapter 3 can be executed on this system. 

A promising alternative is surface textured doped zinc oxide films. ZnO films can offer excellent transparency and are highly resistant to hydrogen plasmas [78]. Textured ZnO films have been prepared by several deposition techniques. Examples are boron doped zinc oxide (ZnO B) prepared by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) ([79,80], see also Chap. 6) or ZnO films deposited by expanding thermal plasma CVD [81], Quite recently, ZnO films for back contacts of solar modules have been developed using chemical bath deposition [82]. 

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