Lateral solid phase epitaxy of Si over SiO2 patterns and its application to silicon-on-insulator transistors

Abstract
Lateral solid phase epitaxy (L‐SPE) of vacuum deposited amorphous Si over SiO2 patterns for various substrate orientation and growth direction has been investigated and applied to fabrication of thin‐film transistors on SiO2. It has been confirmed that the L‐SPE growth length depends strongly on both substrate orientation and growth direction. The maximum growth length of about 7 μm has been obtained in the L‐SPE toward 〈100〉 direction on a (001) substrate. n‐channel and p‐channel transistors on the L‐SPE layer have been developed and successfully fabricated for the first time. Channel mobilities of 380 cm2/V s for n‐channel transistors and 150 cm2/V s for p‐channel transistors have been obtained.