Point Defects, Diffusion and Gettering in Silicon

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe status of our knowledge on intrinsic point defects and diffusion mechanisms is reviewed. Special attention is given to the question of the possible role of carbon in influencing effective diffusivities of intrinsic point defects and the resulting consequences for the values of vacancy and self-interstitial thermal equilibrium concentrations and diffusivities. It is pointed out that we might have to deal with the unfortunate situation that the effective diffusivities of intrinsic point defects might be influenced already by a carbon concentration which is below the detection limit and therefore not amenable to measurement and control. Whereas dopant diffusion processes have been modeled and simulated for a long time the first attempts to quantitatively simulate various gettering processes have just started as will be described in the paper. Finally, the subject of microcrack formation in hydrogen implanted silicon will be dealt with as used for the so-called “smart-cut” process for fabricating silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates with thin and uniform silicon layers by wafer bonding. Presently no quantitative treatment of this fascinating hydrogen agglomeration phenomenon is available.