Patent ID: 8466045

Claim:
A method of processing a semiconductor structure, comprising: providing the structure in a processing space, the structure comprising an epitaxial Si surface and a patterned film; non-selectively depositing a carbon-doped Si film onto the structure, the carbon-doped Si film comprising an epitaxial carbon-doped Si film deposited onto the epitaxial Si surface and a non-epitaxial carbon-doped Si film deposited onto the patterned film; non-selectively depositing a Si film on the carbon-doped Si film, the Si film comprising an epitaxial Si film deposited onto the epitaxial carbon-doped Si film and a non-epitaxial Si film deposited onto the non-epitaxial carbon-doped Si film; performing dry etching that removes the non-epitaxial Si film, the non-epitaxial carbon-doped Si film, and less than the entire epitaxial Si film to form a strained epitaxial carbon-doped Si film on the epitaxial Si surface, wherein the epitaxial carbon-doped Si film is not directly exposed to an etching gas during the dry etching, and wherein the strained epitaxial carbon-doped Si film contains the dry etched epitaxial Si film and the unetched epitaxial carbon-doped Si film; and repeating the non-selectively depositing steps and the dry etching step until the strained epitaxial carbon-doped Si film has a desired thickness.