Epitaxial growth apparatus and epitaxial growth method

摘要

An object of the present invention is to provide an epitaxial growth apparatus and an epitaxial growth method that can suppress variation in in-face temperature of a semiconductor wafer caused by deflection of a susceptor and manufacture an epitaxial wafers of high quality. Specifically, the present invention provides an epitaxial growth apparatus for forming an epitaxial film on a semiconductor wafer placed in a chamber having a supply port and an exhaust port for a treatment gas, the apparatus comprising: a susceptor for placing the semiconductor wafer thereon within the chamber; and a susceptor support shaft for supporting the susceptor at an underneath portion of the susceptor, wherein the susceptor support shaft has a support column located substantially coaxial with the center of the susceptor, and at least four support arms extending radially from the top end of the support column with equal intervals therebetween.

主权项

1. An epitaxial growth method of forming an epitaxial film on a semiconductor wafer, comprising:
placing a semiconductor wafer on a susceptor in a chamber such that the semiconductor wafer can be exposed to a treatment gas, the susceptor being supported at an underneath portion thereof by a susceptor support shaft having support arms extending radially from a top end of a support column; and selecting the number of the support arms to be six to twelve such that the non-uniformity of a resistivity distribution at a surface of a grown epitaxial film is less than 5% in any line or measurement direction, provided that non-uniformity of the resistivity distribution is obtained by measuring a resistivity distribution along a line passing through the center of an epitaxial wafer and calculating a value of (Pmax−Pmin)/(Pmax+Pmin)×100, where the larger value is defined as Pmax and the smaller one is defined as Pmin of two peaks appearing in the measured resistivity distribution along the line, wherein the top end of the support column is distanced from the underneath portion of the susceptor via the support arms therebetween, the susceptor has no through holes in an area thereof to be in contact with the wafer, and the average of values of the non-uniformity of resistivity distribution at the surface of the grown epitaxial film obtained at the respective lines thereof is 4.0% or less.