Method for depositing epitaxial monocrystalline semiconductive layers via sliding liquid phase epitaxy

Claim 1

In a method of depositing a plurality of monocrystalline epitaxial layers of semiconductive material onto a plurality of substrates via sliding liquid phase epitaxy in an operational arrangement including a furnace boot having a plurality of spaced apart substrate-receiving recesses therein and a melt-carrying slide member having a plurality of spaced apart melt-receiving chambers therein associated with such boot so that a surface of the boot forms the bottom of such chambers whereby deposition of individual epitaxial layers on individual substrates occurs by providing a melt containing a desired semiconductive material within each of the melt-receiving chambers and providing a select substrate within each of the substrate-receiving recesses, operationally energizing such arrangement so that controlled movement of the slide member relative to the boot occurs whereby a respective melt is brought into contact with a respective substrate and a controlled lowering of the temperature of such respective melt occurs so as to produce an epitaxial layer on such substrate, the improvement comprising: arranging said melt-receiving chambers and said substrate-receiving chambers in a regularly spaced-apart manner so that the spacing between such recesses is equal to the spacing between such chambers; maintaining a thickness of a respective melt located on a respective substrate at a dimension corresponding to a desired thickness of a deposited monocrystalline layer on such substrate; and controllably cooling all melts respectively located on respective substrates a substantially identical amount during each deposition stage wherein a minimum contact time is maintained between a moving-on of a respective melt onto a respective substrate and a moving-off therefrom, the magnitude of said minimum contact time being defined by the equation: ##EQU3## wherein t min is the minimum contact time; W max is the greatest thickness of such melt over such substrate; and D is the diffusion coefficient of the semiconductive material within such melt.