In-situ Boron-doped Low-stress LPCVD Polysilicon for Micromechanical Disk Resonator

Polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) has been used as an important structural material for microelectro-mechnical systems (MEMS) because of its compatibility with standard integrated circuit (IC) processes. As the structural layer of micromechanical high resonance frequency (high-f) and high quality factor (high-Q) disk resonators, the low residual stress and low resistivity are desired for the polysilicon thin films. In the present work, we investigate the effect of deposition and annealing conditions on the residual stress and resistivity for in-situ deposited low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) polysilicon films. Low residual stress (-100 MPa) was achieved in in-situ boron-doped polysilicon films deposited at 570 degrees C and annealed at 1000 degrees C for 4 hr. The as-deposited amorphous polysilicon films were crystallized by the rapid thermal annealing and have the (111)-preferred orientation, the low tensile residual stress is expected for this annealed film, the detailed description on this work will be reported soon. The controllable residual stress and resistivity make these films suitable for high-Q and bigh-f micro-mechanical disk resonators.

In-Situ Boron and Aluminum Doping and Their Memory Effects in 4H-SiC Homoepitaxial Layers Grown by Hot-Wall LPCVD

The in-situ p-type doping of 4H-SiC grown on off-oriented (0001) 4H-SiC substrates was performed with trimethylaluminum (TMA) and/or diborane (B2H6) as the dopants. The incorporations of Al and B atoms and their memory effects and the electrical properties of p-type 4H-SiC epilayers were characterized by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and Hall effect measurements, respectively. Both Al- and B-doped 4H-SiC epilayers were p-type conduction. It was shown that the profiles of the incorporated boron and aluminum concentration were in agreement with the designed TMA and B2H6 flow rate diagrams. The maximum hole concentration for the Al doped 4H-SiC was 3.52x10(20) cm(-3) with Hall mobility of about 1 cm(2)/Vs and resistivity of 1.6 similar to 2.2x10(-2) Omega cm. The heavily boron-doped 4H-SiC samples were also obtained with B2H6 gas flow rate of 5 sccm, yielding values of 0.328 Omega cm for resistivity, 5.3x10(18) cm(-3) for hole carrier concentration, and 7 cm(2)/VS for hole mobility. The doping efficiency of Al in SiC is larger than that of B. The memory effects of Al and B were investigated in undoped 4H-SiC by using SIMS measurement after a few run of doped 4H-SiC growth. It was clearly shown that the memory effect of Al is stronger than that of B. It is suggested that p-type 4H-SiC growth should be carried out in a separate reactor, especially for Al doping, in order to avoid the join contamination on the subsequent n-type growth. 4H-SiC PiN diodes were fabricated by using heavily B doped epilayers. Preliminary results of PiN diodes with blocking voltage of 300 V and forward voltage drop of 3.0 V were obtained.

In situ hydrate dissociation using microwave heating: Preliminary study

In this work, we investigate the dissociation behavior of natural gas hydrate in a closed system with microwave (MW) heating and hot water heating. The hydrate was formed at temperatures of 1-4 degrees C and pressures of 4.5-5.5 MPa. It was found that the gas hydrate dissociated more rapidly with microwave than with hot water heating. The rate of hydrate dissociation increased with increasing microwave power, and it was a function of microwave power. Furthermore, the temperature of the hydrate increased linearly with time during the microwave radiation.

Stress and resistivity controls on in situ boron doped LPCVD polysilicon films for high-Q MEMS applications

The simultaneous control of residual stress and resistivity of polysilicon thin films by adjusting the deposition parameters and annealing conditions is studied. In situ boron doped polysilicon thin films deposited at 520 ℃ by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) are amorphous with relatively large compressive residual stress and high resistivity. Annealing the amorphous films in a temperature range of 600-800 ℃ gives polysilicon films nearly zero-stress and relatively low resistivity. The low residual stress and low resistivity make the polysilicon films attractive for potential applications in micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) devices, especially in high resonance frequency (high-f) and high quality factor (high-Q MEMS resonators. In addition, polysilicon thin films deposited at 570 ℃ and those without the post annealing process have low resistivities of 2-5 mΩ·cm. These reported approaches avoid the high temperature annealing process (> 1000℃), and the promising properties of these films make them suitable for high-Q and high-f MEMS devices.

In situ annealing during the growth of relaxed SiGe

In this paper, a graded Si1-xGex buffer and thereafter the Si0.8Ge0.2 uniform layer were grown at a little lower temperature to keep the surface smooth, which will provide the gliding dislocations a wider channel and less low energy nucleation sites on the surface. Therefore, the dislocation density may be reduced. However, the motion of the existing threading dislocations cannot retain equilibrium at lower temperature, strain will accumulate and be in favor of the nucleation of dislocation. In situ annealing was used to reduce the residual strain in the sample during the low-temperature growth of SiGe. A fully relaxed Si0.8Ge0.2 layer was obtained with the surface dislocation density of 3x10(5)cm(-2).

In situ doping of 3C-SiC grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by LPCVD

The heteroepitaxial growth of n-type and p-type 3C-SiC on (0001) sapphire substrates has been performed with a supply of SiH4+C2H4+H-2 system by introducing ammonia (NH3) and diborane (B2H6) precursors, respectively, into gas mixtures. Intentionally incorporated nitrogen impurity levels were affected by changing the Si/C ratio within the growth reactor. As an acceptor, boron can be added uniformly into the growing 3C-SiC epilayers. Nitrogen-doped 3C-SiC epilayers were n-type conduction, and boron-doped epilayers were p-type and probably heavily compensated.

In situ annealing treatment and In-doping of GaN epilayers grown by MOVPE

The effects of in situ annealing treatment in the initial growth stage and In-doping during growth of the GaN on the material properties were investigated. GaN was grown by LP-MOVPE. In situ annealing reduced the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of X-ray rocking curves and reduced etch pit density of GaN films. It improved the optical properties of the epilayer. Undoped and In-doped GaN films of initial growth stage were investigated. It was found that morphology and optical properties were improved in In-doped samples. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.