Low-temperature growth of epitaxial Si films at high rates by atmospheric pressure plasma chemical vapor deposition has been investigated. Si films are deposited on (001) Si wafers in gas mixtures containing He (98.9%), H 2 (1%) and SiH 4 (0.1%) at the substrate temperatures from 530 to 690°C. The films are characterized by reflection high-energy electron diffraction, atomic force microscopy and cross sectional transmission electron microscopy. High quality Si films with excellent crystallinity and surface flatness similar to or better than those of the commercial CZ-Si wafers are grown in the area where the deposition gap between the substrate and rotary electrode is small. Especially, in the epitaxial Si film grown at 610°C with 2000W, no lattice defects are observed by transmission electron microscopy. The maximum growth rate is about 6.6μm/min at 690°C and 1.2μm min at 610°C, which is about 20 and 4 times faster than that by the thermal CVD at 1100°C, respectively.
