A Model That Describes the Role of Oxygen, Carbon, and Silicon Interstitials in Silicon Wafers During Device Processing

Abstract

ABSTRACTA model has been developed that simulates oxygen precipitation in silicon wafers during high temperature device processing. The approach used to calculate the nucleation and growth of oxygen precipitates is radically different from other approaches presented in the literature. A discrete rate equation representation of nucleation and growth has been transformed into a continuum representation in the form of a partial differential equation. This partial differential equation describing both the statistical clustering of oxygen during nucleation and the diffusion driven transport during precipitate growth is solved continuously starting from crystal growth through any arbitrary time-dependent temperature process.