Growth of High Quality Strained-Si on Ultra-Thin SiGe-on-Insulator Substrate

Ultra-thin and near-fully relaxed SiGe substrate is fabricated using a modified Ge condensation technique, and then a 25-nm-thick biaxially tensile strained-Si with a low rms roughness is epitaxially deposited on a SiGe-on-Insulator (SGOI) substrate by ultra high vacuum chemical vapor deposition (UHVCVD). High-Resolution cross-sectional transmission electron microscope (HR-XTEM) observations reveal that the strained-Si/SiGe layer is dislocation-free and the atoms at the interface are well aligned. Furthermore, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) results show a sharp interface between layers and a uniform distribution of Ge in the SiGe layer. One percent in-plane tensile strain in the strained-Si layer is confirmed by ultraviolet (UV) Raman spectra,
and the stress maintained even after a 30-s rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process at 1000°C. According to those results, devices based on strained-Si are expected to have a better performance than the conventional ones.