Heat treatment characteristics of heavily doped epitaxial silicon materials

Graduation date: 1986Nucleation and growth kinetics of oxygen precipitates and bulk\ud defects in epitaxial silicon wafers were investigated. Low temperature\ud nucleation heat treatments were applied to the well characterized\ud epitaxial silicon wafers before and after the epitaxial deposition\ud processing. Subsequently the wafers were heat treated at a high\ud temperature.\ud In the case of post-epitaxial nucleation heat treatment it was\ud found that the heat treatment ambients have an effect on the growth of\ud oxygen precipitates. However, the application of nucleation heat\ud treatment can suppress this effect. The maximum bulk defect density in\ud as-received epitaxial materials is limited by the epitaxial deposition\ud process.\ud In the case of pre-epitaxial annealing the effect of the\ud epitaxial deposition heat treatment can be retarded and a higher bulk\ud defect density can be achieved. The effects of thermal history were\ud also observed.\ud The results indicate that the heterogeneous nucleation process is\ud predominant in epitaxial silicon materials