HV/CVD grown grown relaxed SiGe buffer layers for SiGe HMOSFETs

High-vacuum/chemical-vapor deposition (HV/CVD) system was used to grow relaxed SiGe buffer layers on Si substrates. Several methods were then used to analyze the quality of the SiGe films. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy showed that the upper layer was almost fully relaxed. Second ion mass spectroscopy showed that the Ge compositions were step-graded. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the misfit dislocations were restrained to the graded SiGe layers. Tests of the electrical properties of tensile-strained Sion relaxed SiGe buffer layers showed that their transconductances were higher than that of Si devices. These results verify the high quality of the relaxed SiGe buffer layer. The calculated critical layer thicknesses of the graded Si
1
-
x
Ge
x
layer on Si substrate and a Si layer on the relaxed SiGe buffer layer agree well with experimental results.