Thermodynamic Theory of Silicon Chemical Vapor Deposition

Silicon
chemical vapor deposition via silane is determined with
classical thermodynamics. Drastic assumptions are used, such as the
hydrogen carrier gas does not interact with the silicon thin film
growth and the energy of reaction is adjusted to experiments. As a
result, a linear function of temperature akin to a Gibbs free energy
of reaction is shown to control silicon growth rates, and the characteristic
Arrhenius plot is fully determined. The surface response of the growth
rate activation energy is neatly mapped, bringing clarity to the parameter
space for which a single value is a valid metric. A meta-analysis
of growth rates is carried out for a demonstration of the portability
of the linear function of temperature across reactors and to mine
out reactor scaling factors. A silane heterogeneous decomposition
reaction is also a great model chemistry for chlorosilanes. Silicon
deposition is notoriously a complex chemical process, but with thermodynamics,
the reaction mechanism is successfully reduced to the essentials.