Study of Point Defect Concentrations During the Fluorinated Oxidation of Silicon

Abstract

ABSTRACTSome of our most important and quantitative insights on intrinsic point defects have been established as a result of the study of the influence of oxidation on their “excess” concentrations. From study of the growth and shrinkage of oxidation induced stacking faults (OSF) and from oxidation enhanced or retarded diffusion (OED-ORD) the fractional contribution of self-interstitials and vacancies can be assessed. The dominant influence on relatively thin dry or wet oxides is that of the injection of self-interstitials away from the oxidizing interface into the bulk crystal. These self-interstitials have been variously attributed to the incompleteness of oxidation or interracial stress and relaxation at the Si-SiO2 interface. We have studied the role of fluorine additives (ppm) to the dry oxidation process. This paper will discuss similar oxidation-related phenomena (OSF, OED, and ORD), confirming that under our experimental conditions with normally dry oxidation plus fluorine the active point defect injection consists mainly of “excess” vacancies. OSF anneal at lower temperatures than with nitridation processes and with a lower activation energy (1.7 eV). The study of P,B,As, Sb oxidation enhances-retarded diffusions validates the conclusion, with P,B yielding ORD instead of OED and Sb being enhanced rather than retarded as in normal oxidation. Oxidation-induced diffusion experiments not only explored the role of the specific impurity (P,B,As,Sb) but also utilized specimens with four adjacent active regions (bare Si, oxide covered Si, nitride covered Si, and the normal control oxide covered by nitride). The ratios of Ci/Ci* and Cv/Cv* for fluorine addition will be contrasted with those formed by dry oxidation.