Materials study of silicon-on-lnsulator material by TEM

Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology addresses the need for many different device applications, such as radiation tolerant devices, high voltage, and three-dimensional circuitry applications. Isolated silicon epitaxy (ISE) is a commercialised process which results in excellent SOI material quality with proven results, having overcome most of the obstacles of other processes, although only having reduced, not eliminated, threading dislocations. The remaining isolated dislocations have been examined in detail by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These have been diagnosed as normal lattice dislocations, with no faults or twins in the material. The nature, source, and behavior of the remaining dislocations is discussed.