Electrical characterization of epitaxial silicon deposited at low temperatures by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

The initial results of an investigation of the electrical properties of epitaxial silicon films deposited at low temperatures (i.e., 750°C) by the Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) technique are presented. The major results indicate that (1) the electron and hole drift mobilities in the epitaxial layers are the same as in bulk silicon for carrier concentrations between 10
¹⁷
cm
^-3
and 10
¹⁹
cm
^-3
, and (2) high quality p-n junction diodes with no sign of soft breakdown and an ideality factor of 1.10 are obtained at an epitaxial deposition temperature of only 750°C. These p-n diodes represent the first ever reported IC devices fabricated in PECVD epitaxial films.