Growth of Si-Ge Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors By Rapid Thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition (RTCVD)

Rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (RTCVD) is a thin film growth process that results from the combination of radiant heating lamps and a chemical vapor deposition chamber. An RTCVD reactor is the ultimate cold-wall CVD reactor, since only the wafer, which is its own susceptor, gets significantly hot. Thus, the wafer can be heated and cooled rapidly (200C/S heating rates) and held at any temperature for times as short as seconds. High temperature (>= 1000C) excursions can result in in-situ cleaning, immediately after which epitaxial growth can begin. Heterostructures can be grown by modulating gas flow, wafer temperature, or both.