Impact of rapid thermal processing on oxygen precipitation in heavily arsenic and antimony doped Czochralski silicon

Abstract

A comparative investigation is performed on the effects of vacancies induced by rapid thermal processing on oxygen precipitation behavior in heavily arsenic-and antimony-doped Czochralski silicon wafers. It is experimentally found that vacancy-assisted oxide precipitate nucleation occurs at 800, 900, and 1000 C in the Sb-doped wafers, while it only occurs at 800 C in the As-doped ones. Density functional theory calculations indicate that it is energetically favorable to form AsVO and SbVO complexes in As-and Sb-doped silicon crystals, respectively. These complexes might act as precursors for oxide precipitate nucleation under appropriate conditions. The difference between the effects of rapid thermal processing -induced vacancies on oxide precipitate nucleation in the heavily As-and Sb-doped Cz silicon crystals is tentatively elucidated based on density functional theory calculations revealing the difference in binding energies of AsVO and SbVO complexes. V C 2013 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx

Vacancy-controlled ultrastable nanoclusters in nanostructured ferritic alloys

“…The kinetic effects tend to favor the aggregation of mobile adatoms at nucleation sites with higher adoption energies through fast diffusion channels 17 18 . In As- and Sb-doped silicon crystals, it is energetically favorable to form dopant-vacancy-O complexes, which act as precursors for oxide precipitate nucleation under appropriate conditions 21 22 23 . Although O normally has an extremely low solubility in α-Fe, it is highly supersaturated in the α-Fe matrix of these nanostructure ferritic alloys due to the mechanical alloying process.…”

“…Vacancies-assisted nucleation of precipitates has been intensively investigated in variety of materials, from the nucleation and growth of intermetallic nanoclusters on oxide surfaces in metal catalysts system 17 18 19 20 to oxides in silicon crystals 21 22 23 and Magnetic monopoles in spin ice 24 . The effects of vacancy on the nucleation of nanoclusters are strongly dependent on the vacancy configurations, content, and the affinity between vacancy and solute atoms 22 23 .…”

Arsenic Precipitation in Heavily Arsenic‐Doped Czochralski Silicon

“…As can be seen, in each case, the specimen with the prior 1250 °C/60 s RTA or 1100 °C/4 h dry oxidation possesses much higher and lower precipitate density/Δ[n] than the control without any prior treatment, indicating that arsenic precipitation and therefore the electrical deactivation of arsenic impurities are promoted or suppressed in the HAs-CZ silicon specimens subjected to the prior RTA or dry oxidation. It is well known that the 1250 °C/60 s RTA in the Ar ambient introduces vacancies [21,25] while the thermal oxidation injects Si I atoms [22] into silicon. Therefore, Figure 3 indicates that the presence of vacancies/ Si I atoms can enhance/suppress arsenic precipitation in HAs-CZ silicon.…”

Jan Vanhellemont – 35 years of materials research in microelectronics

“…More than 15 papers were jointly published in international journals and conferences (see e. g. Refs. [66][67][68][69]). Jan visited Deren's lab 9 times.…”