Limitations in low-temperature silicon epitaxy due to water vapor and oxygen in the growth ambient

Abstract
Basic chemical equilibrium data for the Si/SiO2/O2/H2O system have been employed to compute critical epitaxial preclean and growth parameters. Preclean and growth experiments were conducted and compared with predicted behavior. A procedure is given that allows for the design of an epitaxial deposition process for most commercially available epitaxy reactor systems. Following this scheme, good crystal quality silicon was deposited at temperatures as low as 890 °C and at a deposition pressure of 150 Torr. For current commercially available reduced pressure reactor systems, a practical low-temperature limit of about 810 °C is predicted.