Total dose radiation response of modified commercial silicon-on-insulator materials with nitrogen implanted buried oxide

Nitrogen ions of various doses are implanted into the buried oxide(BOX) of commercial silicon-on-insulator(SOI) materials,and subsequent annealings are carried out at various temperatures.The total dose radiation responses of the nitrogen-implanted SOI wafers are characterized by the high frequency capacitance-voltage(C-V) technique after irradiation using a Co-60 source.It is found that there exist relatively complex relationships between the radiation hardness of the nitrogen implanted BOX and the nitrogen implantation dose at different irradiation doses.The experimental results also suggest that a lower dose nitrogen implantation and a higher post-implantation annealing temperature are suitable for improving the radiation hardness of SOI wafer.Based on the measured C-V data,secondary ion mass spectrometry(SIMS),and Fourier transform infrared(FTIR) spectroscopy,the total dose responses of the nitrogen-implanted SOI wafers are discussed.     

Influence of Cr<Superscript>+</Superscript> ion implantation and pulsed ion-beam annealing on the formation and optical properties of Si/CrSi<Subscript>2</Subscript>/Si(111) heterostructures

The effect of pulsed ion-beam annealing on the surface morphology, structure, and composition of single-crystal Si(111) wafers implanted by chromium ions with a dose varying from 6 × 10¹⁵ to 6 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻² and on subsequent growth of silicon is investigated for the first time. It is found that pulsed ion-beam annealing causes chromium atom redistribution in the surface layer of the silicon and precipitation of the polycrystalline chromium disilicide (CrSi₂) phase. It is shown that the ultrahigh-vacuum cleaning of the silicon wafers at 850°C upon implantation and pulsed ion-beam annealing provides an atomically clean surface with a developed relief. The growth of silicon by molecular beam epitaxy generates oriented 3D silicon islands, which coalesce at a layer thickness of 100 nm and an implantation dose of 10¹⁶ cm⁻². At higher implantation doses, the silicon layer grows polycrystalline. As follows from Raman scattering data and optical reflectance spectroscopy data, semiconducting CrSi₂ precipitates arise inside the silicon substrate, which diffuse toward its surface during growth.     

Defects formation in the dual B+ and N+ ions implanted silicon

Silicon wafers were implanted with 40 keV B⁺ ions (to doses of 1.2×10¹⁴ or 1.2×10¹⁵ cm^–2) and 50 or 100 keV N⁺ ions (to doses from 1.2×10¹⁴ to 1.2×10¹⁵ cm^–2). After implantations, the samples were furnace annealed at temperatures from 100 to 450 °C. The depth profiles of the radiation damages before and after annealing were obtained from random and channeled RBS spectra using standard procedures. Two damaged regions with different annealing behaviour were found for the silicon implanted with boron ions. Present investigations show that surface disordered layer conserves at the annealing temperatures up to 450 °C. The influence of preliminary boron implantation on the concentration of radiation defects created in subsequent nitrogen implantation was studied. It was shown that the annealing behaviour of the dual implanted silicon layers depends on the nitrogen implantation dose.The authors would like to thank the members of the INP accelerator staff for the help during the experiments. The work of two authors (V.H. and J.K.) was partially supported by the Internal Grant Agency of Academy of Science of Czech Republic under grant No. 14805.     

Ground state magnetic properties of ultrathin fcc Fe and Co films on Cu(001) surfaces

The oxidation characteristics of silicon implanted with a low dose of nitrogen (1–3×10¹⁵cm^–2) have been studied for dry oxidation conditions at 1020°C. The wafers were subjected to a pre-oxidation annealing. Complete inhibition of the oxide growth occurs in the initial stage of oxidation, while the oxidation rate for prolonged oxidation is identical to that for pure silicon. The oxidation resistance increases with the implantation dose. The resistance is attributed to the formation of a nitrogen-rich surface film during annealing. This layer, which consists of only a few monolayers, is presumably composed of oxynitride. The electrical characteristics of MOS capacitors formed on implanted wafers show that the interface state density is not significantly increased by the low-dose N implantation.     

Thermal annealing induced photocarrier radiometry enhancement for ion implanted silicon wafers

An experimental study on the photocarrier radiometry signals of As⁺ ion implanted silicon wafers before and after rapid thermal annealing is performed. The dependences of photocarrier radiometry amplitude on ion implantation dose (1×10¹¹--1×10¹⁶/cm²), implantation energy (20--140 keV) and subsequent isochronical annealing temperature (500--1100 du are investigated. The results show that photocarrier radiometry signals are greatly enhanced for implanted samples annealed at high temperature, especially for those with a high implantation dose. The reduced surface recombination rate resulting from a high built-in electric field generated by annealing-activated impurities in the pn junction is believed to be responsible for the photocarrier radiometry signal enhancement. Photocarrier radiometry is contactless and can therefore be used as an effective in-line tool for the thermal annealing process monitoring of the ion-implanted wafers in semiconductor industries.     

Improvement of total-dose irradiation hardness of silicon-on-insulator materials by modifying the buried oxide layer with ion implantation

The hardening of the buried oxide (BOX) layer of separation by implanted oxygen (SIMOX) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers against total-dose irradiation was investigated by implanting ions into the BOX layers. The tolerance to total-dose irradiation of the BOX layers was characterized by the comparison of the transfer characteristics of SOI NMOS transistors before and after irradiation to a total dose of 2.7 Mrad(SiO₂. The experimental results show that the implantation of silicon ions into the BOX layer can improve the tolerance of the BOX layers to total-dose irradiation. The investigation of the mechanism of the improvement suggests that the deep electron traps introduced by silicon implantation play an important role in the remarkable improvement in radiation hardness of SIMOX SOI wafers.     

Relaxed SiGe-on-insulator with high Ge fraction obtained by oxidation of SiGe/Si-on-insulator with hydrogen ions implantation

The SiGe-on-insulator (SGOI) materials were obtained by thermal oxidation of SiGe layers on SOI wafers. As a comparison, H ions were implanted into SiGe layer of some samples before oxidation. The high degree relaxed SGOI materials with high Ge fraction were fabricated by two kinds of samples, including the samples without and with H ions implantation, and relaxation degree of SiGe layers is above 93%. The different result is that implantation of H ions decreased the oxidation rate of SiGe layer and decreased the loss of Ge in SiGe layer during oxidation. The effect of implantation of H ions is discussed in the paper.     

Damage anneal of antimony/phosphorus double implants in silicon

A method is presented for avoiding the dislocation generation in (100) silicon implanted with phosphorus doses up to 5×10¹⁵ ions/cm² at 50 keV. The residual defects after the damage anneal are considerably reduced if the phosphorus implant is combined with a low dose, e.g. 1×10¹⁴ ions/cm², antimony implant which produces a deeper surface layer of amorphous silicon. It is essential that the phosphorus ions are implanted shallower than the antimony ions, and come to rest within the amorphous layer. Subsequent thermal annealing proceeds by a solid phase epitaxial regrowth mechanism.     

Boron electrical activation in dual B+ + N+ + and B+ + Ar+ ion-implanted silicon

Silicon wafers were implanted with 40 keV B⁺ ions and then with 50 keV N⁺ or 100 keV Ar+ ions to doses from 1.2 x 1014 to 1.2 x 1015 cm^–2. The implanted samples were studied using the Hall effect and standard van der Pauw methods. The dependences of the sheet resistivity and the sheet concentration of charge carriers on the annealing temperature in the range from 700 to 1300 K were obtained. Models describing the influence of additional implantation of nitrogen and argon ions on the process of boron electrical activation during annealing are proposed.     

Synchrotron investigations of the electron structure of silicon nanocrystals in a SiO2 matrix

Silicon ions are implanted into silicon oxide thin films obtained by the thermal oxidation of silicon wafers in wet oxygen. The implantation dose is accumulated either once or cyclically, and the samples are annealed in dry nitrogen every time after implantation. The second series of samples is prepared in a similar way, but the technology for obtaining the oxide films includes additional annealing at 1100°C in air for three hours. X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra are obtained using synchrotron radiation. In all the Si L _2,3 spectra, two absorption edges are observed, the first corresponding to elemental silicon, and the second corresponding to the SiO₂ matrix. The fine structure of the first edge indicates that nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) can form in the SiO₂ matrix, whose atomic and electronic structure depends on the technology of its formation. In both series, the cyclic accumulation of the total dose (Φ = 10¹⁷ cm^?2) and the annealing time (2 h) gives rise to the most pronounced fine structure in the region of the absorption edge of elemental silicon. The probability of forming silicon nanocrystals decreases for the denser silicon oxide in the second series of samples.     

Modulated photoreflectance characterization of ion-implanted semiconductor wafers

Modulated PhotoReflectance (MPR) measurements on semiconductor wafers implanted with boron or silicon ions in the dose range 5×10¹⁰–5×10¹⁵ ions/cm² are presented. Correspondingly, a one-dimensional theoretical multilayer model is established. In the theory, as the implant dose is lower than a critical value, the variation of the MPR signal is contributed mainly by the implanted defects and damages. However, when the dose is above the critical dose, the change of the MPR signal is chiefly due to the formation and growth of an amorphous layer. The theoretical results are in good agreement with those of experiments.     

Effects of Helium and Oxygen Common Implantation in Silicon Wafer

Defect engineering for SiO2 precipitation is investigated using He-ion implantation as the first stage of separation by implanted oxygen （SIMOX）. Cavities axe created in Si by implantation with helium ions. After thermal annealing at different temperatures, the sample is implanted with 120 keV 8.0 ×1016 cm 2 0 ions. The Q ion energy is chosen such that the peak of the concentration distribution is centred at the cavity band. For comparison, another sample is implanted with O ions alone. Cross-sectionM transmission electron microscopy （XTEM）, Fourier transform infrared absorbance spectrometry （FTIR） and atomic force microscopy （AFM） measurements are used to investigate the samples. The results show that a narrow nano-cavity layer is found to be excellent nucleation sites that effectively assisted SiO2 formation and released crystal lattice strain associated with silicon oxidation.     

Crystalline quality of 3C-SiC formed by high-fluence C-implanted Si

Carbon ions at 40 keV were implanted into (1 0 0) high-purity p-type silicon wafers at 400 °C to a fluence of 6.5 × 10¹⁷ ions/cm². Subsequent thermal annealing of the implanted samples was performed in a diffusion furnace at atmospheric pressure with inert nitrogen ambient at 1100 °C. Time-of-flight energy elastic recoil detection analysis (ToF-E ERDA) was used to investigate depth distributions of the implanted ions. Infrared transmittance (IR) and Raman scattering measurements were used to characterize the formation of SiC in the implanted Si substrate. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) was used to characterize the crystalline quality in the surface layer of the sample. The formation of 3C-SiC and its crystalline structure obtained from the above mentioned techniques was finally confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that 3C-SiC is directly formed during implantation, and that the subsequent high-temperature annealing enhances the quality of the poly-crystalline SiC.     

埋氧层注氮工艺对部分耗尽SOI nMOSFET特性的影响

研究了埋氧层中注氮后对制作出的部分耗尽SOInMOSFET的特性产生的影响.实验发现，与不注氮的SIMOX基片相比，由注氮SIMON基片制作的nMOSFET的电子迁移率降低了.且由最低注入剂量的SIMON基片制作的器件具有最低的迁移率.随注入剂量的增加，迁移率略有上升，并趋于饱和.分析认为，电子迁移率的降低是由于Si/SiO2界面的不平整造成的.实验还发现，随氮注入剂量的提高，nMOSFET的阈值电压往负向漂移.但是，对应最低注入剂量的器件阈值电压却大于用SIMOX基片制作出的器件.固定氧化物正电荷及界面陷阱密度的大小和分布的变化可能是导致阈值电压变化的主要因素.另外发现，用注氮基片制作出的部分耗尽SOInMOSFET的kink效应明显弱于用不注氮的SIMOX基片制作的器件. 关键词： SOI nMOSFET 氮注入 电子迁移率 阈值电压     

离子注入硅片快速退火后的红外椭偏光谱研究

离子注入硅片经高温退火后晶体结构缺陷会被修复,其在可见光波段下的光学性质趋于单晶硅,常规的可见光椭偏光谱法对掺杂影响的测量不再有效.本研究将测量波段扩展到红外区域(2—20μm),报道了利用红外椭偏光谱法测量经离子注入掺杂并高温退火的硅片掺杂层光学和电学性质的方法和结果.通过建立基于Drude自由载流子吸收的等效光学模型,得到了杂质激活后掺杂层的杂质浓度分布、电阻率和载流子迁移率等电学参数,以及掺杂层的红外光学常数色散关系,分析了这些参数随注入剂量的关系并对其物理机理给予了解释.研究表明,中远红外椭偏测量是表征退火硅片的有效方法,且测量波长越长,所能分辨的掺杂浓度越低.     

MeV-boron implanted layer, oxygen precipitates and poly-silicon back side combined in one silicon wafer: at what defect will Cu and Ni be gettered?

We have measured the gettering efficiencies for Cu and Ni of various silicon wafers, such as MeV-boron-implanted p- polished wafers treated with two different implantation doses of 3×10¹³ atoms/cm² B and 1×10¹⁵ atoms/cm² B, respectively. A third kind of wafer was covered with a poly-silicon back side and thermally pretreated before the gettering test to form oxygen precipitates in the bulk. The gettering test started with a reproducible spin-on spiking on the front side of the wafers in the range around 10¹² atoms/cm², followed by a thermal treatment to redistribute the metallic impurities in the wafer. Then the gettering efficiencies were measured by a novel wet chemical layer-by-layer etching technique in combination with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. This led to “stratigraphical concentration profiles” of the metallic impurities in the wafer with typical detection limits of (5–10)×10¹² atoms/cm³. The concentration profiles were compared with concentration profiles found after testing the gettering efficiency of p/p+ epitaxial wafers. Almost 100% of the total intentional Cu spiking was recovered in the boron buried layer for both implantation doses. On the front surface and in the region between the front surface and the buried layer a Cu concentration ∼20 times higher than on/in p/p+ epitaxial wafers/layers was measured for the implanted specimen. The lower implantation dose led to higher Cu-concentration levels on the front surface compared to the higher implantation dose. The wafer containing a MeV-boron-implanted layer as well as oxygen precipitates and a poly-silicon back side exhibited a Cu distribution of 30/∼0/70%, respectively. Thus, the gettering by poly-silicon exceeded both the gettering effects by the buried layer and by the oxygen precipitates. Ni gettering in MeV-boron-implanted wafers exhibited other characteristics. The gettering efficiency of the buried layer was 65%, while the remaining Ni contamination was equally distributed between the front-side region and the wafer back side. A wafer containing a buried layer obtained by a 1×10¹⁵ atoms/cm³ B dose and oxygen precipitates exhibited 17% of the total Ni contamination in the boron layer, while ∼80% of the total Ni contamination was gettered by oxygen precipitates. In the case of buried layer/oxygen precipitates/poly-silicon back side the distribution was found to be 13/37/45%, thus exhibiting equal gettering strengths for oxygen precipitates and the poly-silicon back side for Ni contamination. The results were discussed in terms of segregation and relaxation-induced gettering mechanisms including different reaction rates. Received: 30 May 2001 / Accepted: 16 June 2001 / Published online: 30 August 2001     

Microscopic Examination of the Silicon Surface Subjected to High-Dose Silver Implantation

Technical Physics - Low-energy (E = 30 keV) Ag+ ions have been implanted into single-crystalline Si wafers (c-Si) with an implantation dose varying from 1.25 × 1015 to 1.5 × 1017 ions...     

Pulsed nanosecond annealing of magnesium-implanted silicon

Single-crystalline silicon is implanted by magnesium ions at room temperature and then subjected to pulsed ion-beam annealing. The surface morphology, crystallinity, and optical properties of the implanted silicon are studied before and after annealing. It is shown that ion implantation makes a near-surface layer of silicon about 0.1 m thick amorphous. Pulsed nanosecond ion-beam annealing results in silicon recrystallization and the formation of crystalline magnesium silicide precipitates. Optimal values of the implantation dose and pulse energy density for the formation of magnesium silicide precipitates in the near-surface layer of silicon are found.     

Silicon nanocrystals in SiO2 matrix obtained by ion implantation under cyclic dose accumulation

Silicon ions were implanted into the films of silicon oxide obtained by thermal oxidation of silicon wafers in a damp oxygen. Accumulation of the implantation dose was performed either in one step or cyclically in step-by-step mode, and after each stage of implantation the samples were annealed in a dry nitrogen. The second series of the samples differed from the first one by the formation of SiO₂ matrix that included additional annealing in the air at 1100 °C for 3 h before ion implantation. X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) was obtained with the use of synchrotron radiation. Two absorption edges were observed in all of Si L_2,3-spectra. One of them is related to elementary silicon while the other one-to silicon in SiO₂. The fine structure of the first one indicates the formation of nanocrystalline silicon nc-Si in SiO₂ matrix. Its atomic and electron structure depends on the technology of formation. For both series of samples, a cyclical accumulation of the total dose Φ=10¹⁷ cm⁻² (for the total time of annealing—2 h) resulted in the appearance of more distinct structure in the range of absorption edge for the elementary silicon as compared with the case of single-step accumulation dose. In the more “dense” oxide of the samples from the second series, the probability of formation of silicon nanocrystals in a thin near-surface region of the implanted layer was reduced. These results can be interpreted with the account of the previously obtained photoluminescence, Raman scattering and electron microscopy data for these samples.