Low temperature (313 °C) silicon epitaxial growth by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition with stainless steel mesh

Abstract
This letter presents the low temperature silicon epitaxial growth on p-type, 〈100〉 Si wafers by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition with a stainless steel mesh. Following a modified ex situ spin-etch cleaning and an in situ H2 baking step, the epitaxial layer was grown at 313 °C using SiH4 (30 sccm)/H2 (22 sccm) with a pressure of 61 mTorr and a rf power of 10 W. Epitaxial layers were also grown at 323 °C with different silane flow rates. The epitaxial film contains higher defect density when the silane flow rate is low.