Classical and Rapid Thermal Process Effects on Oxygen and Carbon Precipitation in Silicon

Abstract

AbstractWe report observations on the effects of rapid thermal annealing on oxygen and carbon content of different single and multicrystalline silicon materials.From the comparison between the resulting effects of conventional and short thermal annealing, we can deduce that the increase of the concentration of interstitial oxygen after a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) is due to the dissociation of some microprecipitates in silicon, which is significantly affected by the initial oxygen content, thermal history, defects and impurity content such as carbon.