Si Nanowires grown at IMEC with In as the catalyst

Si NW can be grown without plasma
using Au as a catalyst.
(However, it is still very useful for catalyst
precleaning and chamber cleaning.)

However, for microelectronic applications
on Si it is often desirable to avoid Au.
When using In as a catalyst, plasma assistance
becomes very useful for the growth process, too !

Further with plasma assistance SiH4 dissociation is
no longer the rate limiting step !

The first plasma step is mainly for catalyst precleaning.
However, it is also used to optimise:
the shape, contact angle, distribution and density of the In particles !

Equipment:
Plasmalab System 100
("Nanofab" )

Technology:
Parallel Plate Reactor
Shower Head Gas inlet
temperature range: 350° - 600° C

vertical growth rate up to 150 nm/ min

SNWs can be grown with or without plasma
(e g with Au as a catalyst).
The plasma is also used to preclean the seed
layer and to clean the process chamber.

PECVD and CVD technology

Nanofab
(Plasmalab System 100)

with kind permission

IMEC
Daire Cott, Francesca Iacopi
Semiconductor Equipment Assessment collaboration with OPT
EC FP6 project IST-027982 SEA-NET