H.-J. Gossmann

PHYSICAL MECHANISMS OF TRANSIENT ENHANCED DOPANT DIFFUSION IN ION-IMPLANTED SILICON

Implanted B and P dopants in Si exhibit transient enhanced diffusion (TED) during annealing which arises from the excess interstitials generated by the implant. In order to study the mechanisms of TED, transmission electron microscopy measurements of implantation damage were combined with B diffusion experiments using doping marker structures grown by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). Damage from nonamorphizing Si implants at doses ranging from 5×1012 to 1×1014/cm2 evolves into a distribution of {311} interstitial agglomerates during the initial annealing stages at 670–815 °C. The excess interstitial concentration contained in these defects roughly equals the implanted ion dose, an observation that is corroborated by atomistic Monte Carlo simulations of implantation and annealing processes. The injection of interstitials from the damage region involves the dissolution of {311} defects during Ostwald ripening with an activation energy of 3.8±0.2 eV. The excess interstitials drive substitutional B into electric...

B diffusion and clustering in ion implanted Si: The role of B cluster precursors

A comprehensive model for B implantation, diffusion and clustering is presented. The model, implemented in a Monte Carlo atomistic simulator, successfully explains and predicts the behavior of B under a wide variety of implantation and annealing conditions by invoking the formation of immobile precursors of B clusters, prior to the onset of transient enhanced diffusion. The model also includes the usual mechanisms of Si self-interstitial diffusion and B kick-out. The immobile B cluster precursors, such as BI2 (a B atom with two Si self-interstitials) form during implantation or in the very early stages of the annealing, when the Si interstitial supersaturation is very high. They then act as nucleation centers for the formation of B-rich clusters during annealing. The B-rich clusters constitute the electrically inactive B component, so that the clustering process greatly affects both junction depth and doping level in high-dose implants.

B cluster formation and dissolution in Si: A scenario based on atomistic modeling

A comprehensive model of the nucleation, growth, and dissolution of B clusters in Si is presented. We analyze the activation of B in implanted Si on the basis of detailed interactions between B and defects in Si. In the model, the nucleation of B clusters requires a high interstitial supersaturation, which occurs in the damaged region during implantation and at the early stages of the postimplant anneal. B clusters grow by adding interstitial B to preexisting B clusters, resulting in B complexes with a high interstitial content. As the annealing proceeds and the Si interstitial supersaturation decreases, the B clusters emit Si interstitials, leaving small stable B complexes with low interstitial content. The total dissolution of B clusters involves thermally generated Si interstitials, and it is only achieved at very high temperatures or long anneal times.

Carbon diffusion in silicon

Carbon diffusion in silicon has been investigated by using a superlattice structure of carbon spikes (10 nm-wide, carbon concentration >1019 cm−3, spikes spaced 100 nm apart) grown epitaxially by Si molecular beam epitaxy. Samples were annealed in the range between 680 and 850 °C. The diffusive behavior of carbon was monitored by secondary ion mass spectrometry. Carbon diffusion profiles observed at temperatures above 800 °C show highly nonregular behavior. The diffusion results are interpreted in terms of the kick-out mechanism.

Interactions of ion‐implantation‐induced interstitials with boron at high concentrations in silicon

Ion implantation of Si (60 keV, 1×1014/cm2) has been used to introduce excess interstitials into silicon predoped with high background concentrations of B, which were varied between 1×1018 and 1×1019/cm3. Following post‐implantation annealing at 740 °C for 15 min to allow agglomeration of the available interstitials into elongated {311} defects, the density of the agglomerated interstitials was determined by plan‐view transmission electron microscopy observation of the defects. We report a significant reduction in the fraction of excess interstitials trapped in {311} defects as a function of boron concentration, up to nearly complete disappearance of the {311} defects at boron concentrations of 1×1019/cm3. The reduction of the excess interstitial concentration is interpreted in terms of boron‐interstitial clustering, and implications for transient‐enhanced diffusion of B at high concentrations are discussed.

Reduction of transient diffusion from 1–5 keV Si+ ion implantation due to surface annihilation of interstitials

The reduction of transient enhanced diffusion (TED) with reduced implantation energy has been investigated and quantified. A fixed dose of 1×1014 cm−2 Si+ was implanted at energies ranging from 0.5 to 20 keV into boron doping superlattices and enhanced diffusion of the buried boron marker layers was measured for anneals at 810, 950, and 1050 °C. A linearly decreasing dependence of diffusivity enhancement on decreasing Si+ ion range is observed at all temperatures, extrapolating to ∼1 for 0 keV. This is consistent with our expectation that at zero implantation energy there would be no excess interstitials from the implantation and hence no TED. Monte Carlo modeling and continuum simulations are used to fit the experimental data. The results are consistent with a surface recombination length for interstitials of <10 nm. The data presented here demonstrate that in the range of annealing temperatures of interest for p-n junction formation, TED is reduced at smaller ion implantation energies and that this is d...

MECHANISM FOR THE REDUCTION OF INTERSTITIAL SUPERSATURATIONS IN MEV-IMPLANTED SILICON

We demonstrate that the excess vacancies induced by a 1 MeV Si implant reduce the excess interstitials generated by a 40 keV Si implant during thermal annealing when these two implants are superimposed in silicon. It is shown that this previously observed reduction is dominated by vacancy annihilation and not by gettering to deeper interstitial-type extended defects. Interstitial supersaturations were measured using B doping superlattices (DSL) grown on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. Implanting MeV and keV Si ions into the B DSL/SOI structure eliminated the B transient enhanced diffusion normally associated with the keV implant. The buried SiO2 layer in the SOI substrate isolates the deep interstitials-type extended defects of the MeV implant, thereby eliminating the possibility that these defects getter the interstitial excess induced by the keV Si implant.

DEPTH PROFILING OF VACANCY CLUSTERS IN MEV-IMPLANTED SI USING AU LABELING

A technique for profiling the clustered-vacancy region produced by high-energy ion implantation into silicon is described and tested. This technique takes advantage of the fact that metal impurities, such as Au, are trapped in the region of excess vacancies produced by MeV Si implants into silicon. In this work, the clustered-vacancy regions produced by 1-, 2-, and 8-MeV Si implants into silicon have been labeled with Au diffused in from the front surface at 750 °C. The trapped Au was profiled with Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. The dynamics of the clustered-vacancy region were monitored for isochronal annealing at 750–1000 °C, and for isothermal annealing at 950 °C, for 10–600 s. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy analysis revealed that after the drive-in anneal, the Au in the region of vacancy clusters is in the form of precipitates. The results demonstrate that the Au-labeling technique offers a convenient and potentially quantitative tool for depth profiling vacancies in clusters.

BORON-ENHANCED DIFFUSION OF BORON FROM ULTRALOW-ENERGY ION IMPLANTATION

We have investigated the diffusion enhancement mechanism of boron-enhanced diffusion (BED), wherein boron diffusivity is enhanced four to five times over the equilibrium diffusivity at 1050 °C in the proximity of a silicon layer containing a high boron concentration. It is demonstrated that BED is driven by excess interstitials injected from the high boron concentration layer during annealing. For evaporated layers, BED is observed above a threshold boron concentration between 1% and 10%, though it appears to be closer to 1% for B-implanted layers. For sub-keV B implants above the threshold, BED dominates over the contribution from transient-enhanced diffusion to junction depth. For 0.5 keV B, this threshold implantation dose lies between 3×1014 and 1×1015 cm−2. It is proposed that the excess interstitials responsible for BED are produced during the formation of a silicon boride phase in the high B concentration layers.

The interstitial fraction of diffusivity of common dopants in Si

The relative contributions of interstitials and vacancies to diffusion of a dopant A in silicon are specified by the interstitial fraction of diffusivity, fA. Accurate knowledge of fA is required for predictive simulations of Si processing during which the point defect population is perturbed, such as transient enhanced diffusion. While experimental determination of fA is traditionally based on an underdetermined system of equations, we show here that it is actually possible to derive expressions that give meaningful bounds on fA without any further assumptions but that of local equilibrium. By employing a pair of dopants under the same point-defect perturbance, and by utilizing perturbances very far from equilibrium, we obtain experimentally fSb⩽0.012 and fB⩾0.98 at temperatures of ∼800 °C, which are the strictest bounds reported to date. Our results are in agreement with a theoretical expectation that a substitutional dopant in Si should either be a pure vacancy, or a pure interstitial(cy) diffuser.