Process for growing silicon-on-insulator wafers using lateral epitaxial growth with seed window oxidation

摘要

A process for growing silicon on insulator in which complete isolation of the grown silicon of the substrate silicon by an intermediate oxide layer is obtained. A first epitaxial lateral overgrowth technique is used to grow a continuous layer of silicon through seed holes in a patterned oxide layer overlying the silicon substrate. Then the silicon layer is etched to expose the seed holes which are then oxidized to make the oxide layer aperture-free. This is followed by a second epitaxial lateral overgrowth step to replace the silicon etched in the silicon layer to make the layer substantially planar.