A Method to Improve Activation of Implanted Dopants in SiC

Implantation of dopant ions in SiC has evolved according to the assumption that the best electrical results (i.e., carrier concentrations and mobility) is achieved by using the highest possible processing temperature. This includes implantation at > 600 C followed by furnace annealing at temperatures as high as 1,750 C. Despite such aggressive and extreme processing, implantation suffers because of poor dopant activation, typically ranging between < 2%--50% with p-type dopants represented in the lower portion of this range and n-types in the upper. Additionally, high-temperature processing can led to several problems including changes in the stoichiometry and topography of the surface, as well as degradation of the electrical properties of devices. A novel approach for increasing activation of implanted dopants in SiC and lowering the activation temperature will be discussed. This approach utilizes the manipulation of the ion-induced damage to enhance activation of implanted dopants. It will be shown that nearly amorphous layers containing a small amount of residual crystallinity can be recrystallized at temperatures below 900 C with little residual damage. It will be shown that recrystallization traps a high fraction of the implanted dopant residing within the amorphous phase (prior to annealing) onto substitutional sites within the SiC lattice

Ion-induced damage and amorphization in Si

Ion-induced damage growth in high-energy, self-ion irradiated Si was studied using electron microscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. The results show that there is a marked variation in the rate of damage growth, as well as the damage morphology, along the path of the ion. Near the ion end-of-range (eor), damage increases monotonically with ion fluence until a buried amorphous layer is formed, while damage growth saturates at a low level in the region ahead. The morphology of the damage in the saturated region is shown to consist predominantly of simple defect clusters such as the divacancy. Damage growth remains saturated ahead of the eor until expansion of the buried amorphous layer encroaches into the region. A homogeneous growth model is presented which accounts for damage saturation, and accurately predicts the dose-rate dependence of the saturation level. Modifications of the model are discussed which are needed to account for the rapid growth in the eor region and near the interface of the buried amorphous layer. Two important factors contributing to rapid damage growth are identified. Spatial separation of the Frenkel defect pairs (i.e. interstitials and vacancies) due to the momentum of the interstitials is shown to greatly impact damage growth near the eor, while uniaxial strain in the interfacial region of the amorphous layer is identified as an important factor contributing to growth at that location. 20 refs., 10 figs

Ion beam processes in Si

Observation of the effects of implants of energetic ions at high dose rates into Si have produced some exciting and interesting results. The mechanism whereby displacement damage produced by ions self-anneals during high dose rate implantation is discussed. It is shown that ion beam annealing (IBA) offers in certain situations unique possibilities for damage annealing. Annealing results of the near surface in Si with a buried oxide layer, formed by high dose implantation, are presented in order to illustrate the advantages offered by IBA. It is also shown that ion irradiation can stimulate the epitaxial recrystallization of amorphous overlayers in Si. The nonequilibrium alloying which results from such epitaxial processes is discussed as well as mechanisms which limit the solid solubility during irradiation. Finally, a dose rate dependency for the production of stable damage by ion irradiation at a constant fluence has been observed. For low fluence implants, the amount of damage is substantially greater in the case of high flux rather than low flux implantation

Solutions to Defect-Related Problems in Implanted Silicon by Controlled Injection of Vacancies by High-Energy Ion Irradiation

Amorphization and a dual implant technique have been used to manipulate residual defects that persist following implantation and post-implant thermal treatments. Residual defects can often be attributed to ion-induced defect excesses. A defect is considered to be excess when it occurs in a localized region at a concentration greater than its complement. Sources of excess defects include spatially separated Frenkel pairs, excess interstitials resulting from the implanted atoms, and sputtering. Pre-amorphizing prior to dopant implantation has been proposed to eliminate dopant broadening due to ion channeling as well as dopant diffusion during subsequent annealing. However, transient-enhanced diffusion (TED) of implanted boron has been observed in pre-amorphized Si. The defects driving this enhanced boron diffusion are thought to be the extended interstitial-type defects that form below the amorphous-crystalline interface during implantation. A dual implantation process was applied in an attempt to reduce or eliminate this interfacial defect band. High-energy, ion implantation is known to inject a vacancy excess in this region. Vacancies were implanted at a concentration coincident with the excess interstitials below the a-c interface to promote recombination between the two defect species. Preliminary results indicate that a critical fluence, i.e., a sufficient vacancy concentration, will eliminate the interstitial defects. The effect of the reduction or elimination of these interfacial defects upon TED of boron will be discussed. Rutherford backscattering/channeling and cross section transmission electron microscopy analyses were used to characterize the defect structure within the implanted layer. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy was used to profile the dopant distributions

Phase Transformation and Impurity Redistribution During Pulsed Laser Irradiation of Amorphous Silicon Layers

Engineering and Applied Science

Dose rate effects on damage formation in ion-implanted gallium arsenide

The residual damage in GaAs was measured by ion channeling following implantation of either 100 keV {sup 30}Si{sup +} at temperatures of 300K or 77K, or 360 keV {sup 120}Sn{sup +} at 300K. For room-temperature Si implants and fluences between 1 and 10 {times} 10{sup 14} Si/cm{sup 2}, the amount of damage created was strongly dependent upon the ion current density, which was varied between 0.05 and 12 {mu}A/cm{sup 2}. Two different stages of damage growth were identified by an abrupt increase in the damage growth rate as a function of fluence, and the threshold fluence for the onset of the second stage was found to be dependent on the dose rate. The dose rate effect on damage was substantially weaker for {sup 120}Sn{sup +} implants and was negligible for Si implants at 77K. The damage was found to be most sensitive to the average current density, demonstrating that the defects which are the precursors to the residual dose-rate dependent damage have active lifetimes of at least 3 {times} 10{sup {minus}4} s. The dose rate effect and its variation with ion mass and temperature are discussed in the context of homogeneous nucleation and growth of damage during ion irradiation

Growth And Characterization Of Epitaxial Layers Of Ge On Si Substrates

Thin single crystalline layers of Ge with atomically sharp boundaries have been formed epitaxially on (100) Si substrates. This was done by /sup 74/Ge ion implantation into Si followed by steam oxidation. Using both Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we have found that a Ge layer forms as a result of Ge segregated at the moving SiO/sub 2/ interface during steam oxidation. For a SiO/sub 2/ layer that has swept through the implanted region, essentially all of the Ge is snow-ploughed and no Ge is lost to the oxide layer. The Ge layers and its two bounding interfaces, i.e., Ge/SiO/sub 2/ and Ge/Si, have been characterized as a function of the implantation dose and energy. The thickness of the Ge layer formed is dependent on the implantation dose. Thicknesses from a fraction of a monolayer to greater than 50 monolayers of Ge can be formed on Si by this mechanism. Initially the Ge layer forms a coherent interface with the underlying Si with no misfit dislocations, and misfit dislocations only appear as the thickness of the film is increased

Damage nucleation in Si during ion irradiation

Damage nucleation in single crystals of silicon during ion irradiation is investigated. Experimental results and mechanisms for damage nucleation during both room and liquid nitrogen temperature irradiation with different mass ions are discussed. It is shown that the accumulation of damage during room temperature irradiation depends on the rate of implantation. These dose rate effects are found to decrease in magnitude as the mass of the ions is increased. The significance of dose rate effects and their mass dependence on nucleation mechanisms is discussed