Damage Profiles in Silicon and their Impact on Device Reliability

Abstract

The influence of oxygen on the minority carrier lifetime of silicon is reported. Bulk annealed, oxygen-rich crystals subsequently sliced into wafers show lifetime degradation with annealing time. Silicon oxide precipitates and punched out dislocation loops induced during annealing are identified as electrically active defects responsible for the observed lifetime degradation. Increase in device yields (diodes) and improved lifetime in epitaxial films obtained with oxygen-rich wafers as substrates are a result of 'intrinsic gettering' of oxygen-rich wafers. It is shown that 'external gettering' can not improve minority carrier lifetime in silicon wafers if during processing 'intrinsic gettering' is activated. It also shows that external gettering such as impact sound stressing (ISS) is very effective in improving lifetime for wafers not containing 'intrinsic gettering' sources.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1977
Accession Number
ADA053622

Entities

People

  • G. H. Schwuttke
  • Kaipei Yang

Organizations

  • International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY)

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Batch Processing
  • Chemical Etching
  • Crystal Growth
  • Crystallography
  • Crystals
  • Diffraction
  • Dislocations
  • Electrical Measurement
  • Electron Microscopes
  • Electron Microscopy
  • Heat Treatment
  • Microscopes
  • Microscopy
  • Semiconductor Devices
  • Semiconductors
  • Transmission Electron Microscopy
  • X Rays

Fields of Study

  • Engineering
  • Materials science

Readers

  • Semiconductor Device Technology