Kinetics of chemical vapor deposition of Si on Ni substrates from a SiCl4-H-2 gas precursor mixture

Abstract

The kinetics of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of Si on the Ni substrate at deposition temperatures between 850 and 1050 degreesC using hot-wall reactor and SiCl4-H-2 gas mixture was investigated. The deposition rate of Si on the Ni substrate obeyed a linear rate law. The activation energy for Si deposition was approximately 117 kJ/mol at low temperatures, indicating that the rate-limiting step for deposition of Si was the chemical reaction step to deposit Si on the surface of substrate. At high temperatures above 975 degreesC, activation energy was approximately 29 kJ/mol, indicating that that was the mass transport step of reactant gas species through a gas boundary layer from the main gas stream to the surface of Ni substrate. Under CVD conditions of Si limited by the mass transport step, there was a limit in the increase of the Cl/H input ratio to increase the deposition rate of Si on Ni substrate due to etching effect of Si. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.