Epitaxy

Epitaxy refers to the method of depositing a monocrystalline film on a monocrystalline substrate. The deposited film is denoted as epitaxial film or epitaxial layer. The term epitaxy comes from the Greek roots epi, meaning "above", and taxis, meaning "in ordered manner". It can be translated "to arrange upon".Epitaxial films may be grown from gaseous or liquid precursors. Because the substrate acts as a seed crystal, the deposited film takes on a lattice structure and orientation identical to those of the substrate. This is different from other thin-film deposition methods which deposit polycrystalline or amorphous films, even on single-crystal substrates. If a film is deposited on a substrate of the same composition, the process is called homoepitaxy; otherwise it is called heteroepitaxy. Homoepitaxy is a kind of epitaxy performed with only one material. In homoepitaxy, a crystalline film is grown on a substrate or film of the same material. This technology is applied to growing a more purified film than the substrate and fabricating layers with different doping levels. Heteroepitaxy is a kind of epitaxy performed with materials that are different from each other. In heteroepitaxy, a crystalline film grows on a crystalline substrate or film of another material. This technology is often applied to growing crystalline films of materials of which single crystals cannot be obtained and to fabricating integrated crystalline layers of different materials. Examples include gallium nitride (GaN) on sapphire or aluminium gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP) on gallium arsenide (GaAs). Heterotopotaxy is a process similar to heteroepitaxy except for the fact that thin film growth is not limited to two dimensional growth. Here the substrate is similar only in structure to the thin film material. Epitaxy is used in silicon-based manufacturing processes for BJTs and modern CMOS, but it is particularly important for compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide. Manufacturing issues include control of the amount and uniformity of the deposition's resistivity and thickness, the cleanliness and purity of the surface and the chamber atmosphere, the prevention of the typically much more highly doped substrate wafer's diffusion of dopant to the new layers, imperfections of the growth process, and protecting the surfaces during the manufacture and handling.

Further information:

1. Палатник Л. С, Папиров И. И., Ориентированная кристаллизация, М., 1964; их же, Эпитаксиальные пленки, М., 1971; Современная кристаллография, т. 3, М., 1980.
2. A. Polman et. al., J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 75, No. 6, 15 March 1994
3. S. Mirabella et. al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 2005
4. Jaeger, Richard C. (2002). "Film Deposition". Introduction to Microelectronic Fabrication. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
5. Article Epitaxy from Wikipedia, the Free Enciclopedia. Available under the license Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike.

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