Multiwafer atmospheric-pressure MOVPE reactor for nitride semiconductors and ex-situ dry cleaning of reactor components using chlorine gas for stable operation

We describe an atmospheric-pressure MOVPE reactor with a capacity of 2 inch by 10 or 3 inch by 8. In this reactor, the parasitic reaction of particulate generation is suppressed by adopting a high-flow-speed design. As a result of suppressing of the parasitic reaction, we have also grown GaN at a growth rate of more than 28 μm/hr at atmospheric pressure. It is also important to grow a heterostructure of Al-containing alloys continuously to enable device applications, while maintaining the proper growth conditions for other layers such as GaN:Mg. An Al0.09Ga0.91N layer has been grown at a growth rate of 1 μm/h at atmospheric pressure. In the production environment, it is also essential to operate a reactor under a stable condition. To this end, we have adopted ex-situ dry cleaning of all reactor components with deposits on them after every growth run. Dry cleaning was conducted using chemical etching of the deposit by chlorine gas in a hot tube reactor at about 800 °C. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)