Si-based group III-V material enables a multitude of applications and functionalities of the novel optoelectronic integration chips (OEICs) owing to their excellent optoelectronic properties and compatibility with the mature Si CMOS process technology. To achieve high performance OEICs, the crystal quality of the group III-V epitaxial layer plays an extremely vital role. However, there are several challenges for high quality group III-V material growth on Si, such as a large lattice mismatch, highly thermal expansion coefficient difference, and huge dissimilarity between group III-V material and Si, which inevitably leads to the formation of high threading dislocation densities (TDDs) and anti-phase boundaries (APBs). In view of the above-mentioned growth problems, this review details the defects formation and defects suppression methods to grow III-V materials on Si substrate (such as GaAs and InP), so as to give readers a full understanding on the group III-V hetero-epitaxial growth on Si substrates. Based on the previous literature investigation, two main concepts (global growth and selective epitaxial growth (SEG)) were proposed. Besides, we highlight the advanced technologies, such as the miscut substrate, multi-type buffer layer, strain superlattice (SLs), and epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO), to decrease the TDDs and APBs. To achieve high performance OEICs, the growth strategy and development trend for group III-V material on Si platform were also emphasized.

Stacked SiGe/Si structures are widely used as the units for gate-all-around nanowire transistors (GAA NWTs) which are a promising candidate beyond fin field effective transistors (FinFETs) technologies in near future. These structures deal with a several challenges brought by the shrinking of device dimensions. The preparation of inner spacers is one of the most critical processes for GAA nano-scale transistors. This study focuses on two key processes: inner spacer film conformal deposition and accurate etching. The results show that low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) silicon nitride has a good film filling effect; a precise and controllable silicon nitride inner spacer structure is prepared by using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) tool and a new gas mixtures of CH₂F₂/CH₄/O₂/Ar. Silicon nitride inner spacer etch has a high etch selectivity ratio, exceeding 100:1 to Si and more than 30:1 to SiO₂. High anisotropy with an excellent vertical/lateral etch ratio exceeding 80:1 is successfully demonstrated. It also provides a solution to the key process challenges of nano-transistors beyond 5 nm node.

This work presents the growth of high-quality Ge epilayers on Si (001) substrates using a reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) chamber. Based on the initial nucleation, a low temperature high temperature (LT-HT) two-step approach, we systematically investigate the nucleation time and surface topography, influence of a LT-Ge buffer layer thickness, a HT-Ge growth temperature, layer thickness, and high temperature thermal treatment on the morphological and crystalline quality of the Ge epilayers. It is also a unique study in the initial growth of Ge epitaxy; the start point of the experiments includes Stranski–Krastanov mode in which the Ge wet layer is initially formed and later the growth is developed to form nuclides. Afterwards, a two-dimensional Ge layer is formed from the coalescing of the nuclides. The evolution of the strain from the beginning stage of the growth up to the full Ge layer has been investigated. Material characterization results show that Ge epilayer with 400 nm LT-Ge buffer layer features at least the root mean square (RMS) value and it’s threading dislocation density (TDD) decreases by a factor of 2. In view of the 400 nm LT-Ge buffer layer, the 1000 nm Ge epilayer with HT-Ge growth temperature of 650 °C showed the best material quality, which is conducive to the merging of the crystals into a connected structure eventually forming a continuous and two-dimensional film. After increasing the thickness of Ge layer from 900 nm to 2000 nm, Ge surface roughness decreased first and then increased slowly (the RMS value for 1400 nm Ge layer was 0.81 nm). Finally, a high-temperature annealing process was carried out and high-quality Ge layer was obtained (TDD=2.78 × 10⁷ cm⁻²). In addition, room temperature strong photoluminescence (PL) peak intensity and narrow full width at half maximum (11 meV) spectra further confirm the high crystalline quality of the Ge layer manufactured by this optimized process. This work highlights the inducing, increasing, and relaxing of the strain in the Ge buffer and the signature of the defect formation.

In this paper, to solve the epitaxial thickness limit and the high interface trap density of SiGe channel Fin field effect transistor (FinFET), a four-period vertically stacked SiGe/Si channel FinFET is presented. A high crystal quality of four-period stacked SiGe/Si multilayer epitaxial grown with the thickness of each SiGe layer less than 10 nm is realized on a Si substrate without any structural defect impact by optimizing its epitaxial grown process. Meanwhile, the Ge atomic fraction of the SiGe layers is very uniform and its SiGe/Si interfaces are sharp. Then, a vertical profile of the stacked SiGe/Si Fin is achieved with HBr/O₂/He plasma by optimizing its bias voltage and O₂ flow. After the four-period vertically stacked SiGe/Si Fin structure is introduced, its FinFET device is successfully fabricated under the same fabrication process as the conventional SiGe FinFET. And it attains better drive current I_on, subthreshold slope (SS) and I_on/I_off ratio electrical performance compared with the conventional SiGe channel FinFET, whose Fin height of SiGe channel is almost equal to total thickness of SiGe in the four-period stacked SiGe/Si channel FinFET. This may be attributed to that the four-period stacked SiGe/Si Fin structure has larger effective channel width (W_eff) and may maintain a better quality and surface interfacial performance during the whole fabrication process. Moreover, Si channel of the stacked SiGe/Si channel turning on first also may have contribution to its better electrical properties. This four-period vertically stacked SiGe/Si channel FinFET device has been demonstrated to be a practical candidate for the future technology nodes.