Stressor for engineered strain on channel
View Patent ↗A semiconductor substrate having recesses filled with heteroepitaxial silicon-containing material with different portions having different impurity concentrations. Strained layers can fill recessed source/drain regions in a graded, bottom-up fashion. Layers can also line recess sidewalls with one concentration of strain-inducing impurity and fill the remainder to the recess with a lower concentration of the impurity. In the latter case, the sidewall liner can be tapered.
1. A method of selectively forming semiconductor material, comprising:
providing a substrate within a chemical vapor deposition chamber, the substrate comprising insulating surfaces and single-crystal semiconductor surfaces, wherein the single-crystal semiconductor surfaces include a recess having a sidewall immediately adjacent a transistor channel; and
selectively forming a semiconductor stressor in the recess, wherein the semiconductor stressor is graded such that an upper portion of the semiconductor stressor within the recess has a higher amount of strain than lower portions and wherein the upper portion of the semiconductor stressor extends within the recess to the sidewall of the recess;
wherein selectively forming comprises:
depositing semiconductor material over the insulating surfaces and the single-crystal semiconductor surfaces;
selectively removing non-epitaxial semiconductor material from the insulating surfaces, and selectively removing epitaxial material from the sidewall of the recess while leaving epitaxial material at a bottom of the recess; and
repeating depositing and selectively removing in a plurality of cycles, wherein each cycle adds to a thickness of epitaxial material at a bottom of the recess and wherein a layer of semiconductor material contains a higher concentration of a dopant than an underlying layer of semiconductor material in the recess.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the semiconductor stressor comprises discrete layers.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein depositing semiconductor material comprises blanket depositing semiconductor material over the insulating surfaces and the single-crystal semiconductor surfaces of the substrate.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein blanket depositing comprises non-selectively depositing.
5. The method of claim 3 , wherein blanket depositing comprises forming predominantly amorphous semiconductor material over the insulating surfaces.
6. The method of claim 3 , wherein blanket depositing comprises flowing trisilane and a carbon precursor into the chemical vapor deposition chamber.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the semiconductor material comprises carbon-doped silicon.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the strain is highest within the recess at a top portion of the recessed region.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least an uppermost layer of the semiconductor stressor is tensile strained.
10. The method of claim 3 , wherein blanket depositing comprises flowing a germanium source.
11. The method of claim 3 , wherein blanket depositing comprises forming predominantly polycrystalline material over the insulating surfaces.
12. The method of claim 3 , wherein blanket depositing comprises flowing at least some etchant.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein selectively removing non-epitaxial semiconductor material and epitaxial semiconductor material involves introducing an etch chemistry comprising a germanium source.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the germanium source comprises GeCl 4 .
15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forming a silicon capping layer over the selectively formed semiconductor stressor.