Silicon-germanium: properties, growth and applications

Silicon-germanium is an important material that is used for the fabrication of SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors and strained Si metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOSmetal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS)) transistors for advanced complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOScomplementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)) and BiCMOS (bipolar CMOS) technologies. It also has interesting optical properties that are increasingly being applied in silicon-based photonic devices. The key benefit of silicon-germanium is its use in combination with silicon to produce a heterojunction. Strain is incorporated into the silicon-germanium or the silicon during growth, which also gives improved physical properties such as higher values of mobility. This chapter reviews the properties of silicon-germanium, beginning with the electronic properties and then progressing to the optical properties. The growth of silicon-germanium is considered, with particular emphasis on the chemical vapour deposition technique and selective epitaxy. Finally, the properties of polycrystalline silicon-germanium are discussed in the context of its use as a gate material for MOS transistors.