Chemical vapor deposition of Si:C and Si:C:P films-Evaluation of material quality as a function of C content, carrier gas and doping

Incorporation of source-drain stressors (S/D) for FinFETs to boost the channel mobility is a promising scaling approach. Typically SiGe:B S/D stressors are used for p FinFETs and Si:C:P S/D stressors for n FinFETs. The deposition of such Si:C:P S/D stressors requires a low thermal budget to freeze the C in substitutional sites and also to avoid problems associated with surface reflow of Si fins. In this work, we report the material properties of Si:C and Si:C:P epitaxial layers grown by chemical vapor deposition, in terms of their defectivity and C incorporation as a function of different process conditions. The undoped Si:C layers were found to be defect free for total C contents below 1%. Above this concentration defects were incorporated and the defect density increased with increasing C content. Abrupt epitaxial breakdown occurred beyond a total C content of 2.3% resulting in amorphous layers. P doping of Si:C layers brought down the resistivity and also thicker Si:C:P films underwent epitaxial breakdown. Additionally, the use of nitrogen instead of hydrogen as carrier gas resulted in an increase of the growth rate and substitutional C incorporation both by a factor of two, while the surface defect density reduced.