(Invited) Industrial Applications of Si-Based Epitaxy in Nanoelectronics

Abstract

Si, SiGe, SiC and Ge heteroepitaxial depositions (epi) on silicon wafers are of great interest as they allow dramatic performance improvements or even new devices fabrication. In this lecture, the various epi techniques will be briefly benchmarked for industrial usage and the characteristics of RTCVD, the most adopted technique, will be detailed. Then, based on the wide variety of epi processes integrated in very different technologies (Imagers, Photonics, Bipolars and CMOS) at STMicroelectronics (Crolles), important epi applications will be presented. This will also allow the main challenges/difficulties of epi to be listed; and some of them, namely the temperature control on product wafers in RTCVD, the thermal budget limitations coming from materials or technologies, and the “small size effects” in epi will detailed. As a conclusion, we will try to summary the recent and future trends in epi process.