ENGINEERING PHYSICS – 104

Lecture # 30
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS

TEXT BOOK (Solid State Electronic Devices) CH-1

SECTION : 1.1.2-
1.2.4
PAGE No : 7-11
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After this lecture we’ll be able to understand:

• Atomic Packing Factor
• Elaborate the types of epitaxy
• Describe the applications of epitaxial layers
• Explain techniques to produce epitaxial layers

•
 ATOMIC PACKING FACTOR
When describing crystalline structures, we assume atoms ( or
ions ) are solid spheres having well defined diameters and
nearest neighbor atoms touch one another.

In crystallography, atomic

packing factor (APF) or packing
fraction is the fraction of volume
in a crystal structure that is
occupied by atoms.
It is dimensionless and
always less than unity.
 ATOMIC PACKING FACTOR
To calculate the Atomic Packing Factor;

In crystalline materials:

Atomic packing factor
= total volume of atoms in unit cell / volume of unit cell (as unit
cell repeats in space)

A. P. F. = v/V

Recall : a = 2r (sc)
a = 4r/√3 (bcc)
a = √8 r (fcc)
 ATOMIC PACKING FACTOR (Simple Cubic)

Volume of atoms in unit cell*

APF =
Volume of unit cell
*assume hard spheres

volume
a atoms
4 atom
R=0.5a unit cell 1 (0.5a) 3
3
close-packed directions
APF =
a3 volume
contains 8 x 1/8 = unit cell
1 atom/unit cell
Lattice constant
APF for a simple cubic structure = 0.52
ATOMIC PACKING FACTOR: BCC(example-1)
• radius = r = √3 a/4

Unit cell c ontains:

1 + 8 x 1/8
= 2 atoms/unit cell
R
a
atoms volume
4
unit cell 2 ( 3a/4 ) 3
3 atom
APF =
volume
a3
unit cell
• APF for a body-centered cubic structure = 3/8 = 0.68
 ATOMIC PACKING FACTOR: FCC
• radius = r = a/2√2 = √2a/4

Unit cell c ontains:

6 x 1/2 + 8 x 1/8
= 4 atoms/unit cell
a
atoms volume
4
unit cell 4 ( 2a/4 ) 3
3 atom
APF =
volume
a3
unit cell

• APF for a body-centered cubic structure = /(32) = 0.74

(best possible packing of identical spheres)
 Starting material
• Raw material for silicon crystal is SiO2
SiO2 + 2C Si + 2CO
• This forms metallurgical grade Si which has impurities as F, Al etc .
The MGS is refined for semiconductor grade or electronic grade
Si(EGS) in which the level of impurities reduced using reaction
Si + 3HCl SiHCl3 + H2
• In this case SiHCl3 has FeCl3 impurity which is removed and then
pure SiHCl3 react with H2 as
2SiHCl3 + 2H2 2Si + 6HCl
• This silicon is pure but it is still polycrystalline EGS and convert to
single Si ingots. Then it is mechanically processed, manufacture
wafers and then doping is made.
 EPITAXIAL GROWTH
Epitaxy comes from Greek words: Epi: upon /above Taxis:
ordered. It can be translated "to arrange upon”
It is one of the most important method of crystal growth for
device application is the growth of a thin layer on a wafer (slice or
substrate) of a crystal is called epitaxial growth.

In this method, monocrystalline film is deposited on a

monocrystalline substrate.
Epitaxy is used in semiconductor fabrication and is the only
inexpensive method of high quality crystal growth for many
semiconductor materials.
 EPITAXIAL GROWTH

The substrate crystal may be a wafer (slice or substrate) of

the same material as the grown layer or a different material with
a similar lattice structure.
This is different from other thin-film deposition methods which
deposit polycrystalline or amorphous films, even on single-
crystal substrates.
 TYPES OF EPITAXY
There are two types of epitaxy

Homoepitaxy
 In homoepitaxy, a crystalline film is grown on a substrate or film of
the same material.
 This technology is used to grow a film which is more pure than the
substrate.

The film and the substrate are the same material.

For example, growth of Si on Si substrate
 TYPES OF EPITAXY
Heteroepitaxy
 In heteroepitaxy, a crystalline film grows on a crystalline substrate
or film of a different material.

Growing layer and substrate are different materials.

 Examples include aluminium gallium indium phosphide
(AlGaInP) on gallium arsenide (GaAs).
 Techniques for silicon epitaxy

 Epitaxial silicon is usually grown using

 Vapor-phase epitaxy (VPE), a modification of chemical vapor

deposition (CVD),

 Molecular-beam and liquid-phase epitaxy (MBE and LPE) are

also used, mainly for compound semiconductors.

 Solid-phase epitaxy is used primarily for crystal-damage healing.

 VAPOR PHASE EPITAXY
• The most common technique in Si epitaxy is VPE
• This technique requires a chamber called reaction chamber or
reactor. Hydrogen gas(H2) is passed through a heated vessel
in which SiCl4 is evaporated.
The substrate is heated in a chamber:
The two gasses are then introduced
into the reactor over the substrate
crystal along with other gases containing

the doping impurities.

 VAPOR PHASE EPITAXY

The Si slice is placed on a graphite susceptor or some other

material that can be heated to the reaction temperature with RF
inductive heating coil. The reaction temp. is about 1200oC.

 Reactive Si containing gaseous

compounds are introduced
 Gases react on the hot surface of
the substrate and deposit a Si layer
 VAPOR PHASE EPITAXY

At high temperature, a gas of silicon tetrachloride reacts with

hydrogen gas at approximately 1200 °C to form Si and HCl:

SiCl4(g) + 2H2(g) ↔ Si(s) + 4HCl(g)

If the reaction occurs at the surface of a heated crystal, the

Si atoms released in the reaction can be deposited as an

epitaxial layer. The HCl remains gaseous at the reaction

temperature and does not disturb the growing crystal.

 VAPOR PHASE EPITAXY
At low temperature, Silicon VPE may also use
silane (SiH4), dichlorosilane (SiH2Cl2), and

trichlorosilane (SiHCl3) source gases. For

instance, the silane reaction occurs at 650 °C in
this way: SiH4 → Si + 2H2

This reaction does not unintentionally etch the wafer, and

takes place at lower temperatures. However, it will form a
polycrystalline film unless tightly controlled.

Vapor phase epitaxial growth is also important in the III-V

compounds, such as GaAs, GaP and GaAsP which is widely
used in the fabrication of LEDs.
 VAPOR PHASE EPITAXY
• VPE Process steps:

Pre-clean Deposition Evaluation

• Pre-clean: remove particulates

• Deposition:
Introduce
Load wafer chemical Remove
into Heat vapour vapour
chamber,
inert Flush excess
atmosphere chemical
• Evaluation: thickness, purity, cleanliness
vapour source
and composition
 Applications
Epitaxy is used in nanotechnology and in semiconductor
fabrication.
The only inexpensive method to obtain high quality crystal
growth for many semiconductor materials, including
technologically important materials as silicon-germanium,
gallium nitride, gallium arsenide and graphene.
Also used to grow layers of pre- doped Si
on the polished sides of Si wafers, before
they are processed into semiconductor
devices.
This is typical of power devices, such as
those used in pacemakers, automobile
computers, etc.
 PRACTICE PROBLEM
Calculate the volume of an FCC unit cell in terms of atomic

radius R and then show that the atomic packing factor for

the FCC crystal structure is approximately 0.74.

PRACTICE PROBLEM
END
 PRACTICE PROBLEM

1. Draw the (002) Plane in simple cubic structure.

2. Calculate the volume of an FCC unit cell in terms

of the atomic radius R and then show that the atomic

packing factor for the FCC crystal structure is

approximately 0.74.