Ion implantation is one of the weightiest operations for image sensing device fabrication. In this paper several impacts of ion implantation for characteristics of image sensors are considered. Among metal contamination, implant damages, micro uniformity and so on, metal contamination is the most important issue for reduction of dark current and white blemish in image pixels and an immediate target of metal contamination level of less than 1E-9 cm -2 at popular implant conditions is successfully achieved. Ultrahigh energy implants of 5MeV boron and over 8MeV phosphorous and arsenic for Rp deeper than 3 µm are very attractive to obtain superior characteristics of high-end image sensing devices. Implant damage, scan overlap, implant angle accuracy, and low-energy medium-dose implant are also discussed.

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Ion implantation technology is reviewed mainly from the viewpoint of image sensors, which play a significant role in implantation technology development. Image sensors are so sensitive to metal contamination that they can detect even one metal atom per pixel. To reduce the metal contamination, the plasma shower using RF (radio frequency) plasma generation is a representative example. The electrostatic angular energy filter after the mass analyzing magnet is a highly effective method to remove energetic metal contamination. The protection layer on the silicon is needed to protect the silicon wafer against the physisorbed metals. The thickness of the protection layer should be determined by considering the knock-on depth. The damage by ion implantation also causes blemishes. It becomes larger in the following conditions if the other conditions are the same; a. higher energy; b. larger dose; c. smaller beam size (higher beam current density); d. longer ion beam irradiation time; e. larger ion mass. To reduce channeling, the most effective method is to choose proper tilt and twist angles. For P+ pinning layer formation, the low-energy B+ implantation method might have less metal contamination and damage, compared with the BF2+ method.

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