We have quantitatively studied by transmission electron microscopy the growth kinetics of platelets formed during the continuous hydrogenation of a Si substrate/SiGe/Si heterostructure. We have evidenced and explained the massive transfer of hydrogen from a population of platelets initially generated in the upper Si layer by plasma hydrogenation towards a population of larger platelets located in the SiGe layer. We demonstrate that this type of process can be used not only to precisely localize the micro-cracks, then the fracture line at a given depth but also to “clean” the top layer from pre-existing defects.
Arsenic and boron concentration profiles, diffused from polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) into an underlying single crystalline silicon, are analyzed by secondary ion mass spectrometry. This bilayer is the basic structure of a self-aligned bipolar transistor, compatible with a complementary metal oxide-semiconductor; arsenic and boron codiffusions are studied in an emitter and extrinsic base configuration of bipolar transistors. Rapid thermal annealings are performed to obtain shallow junctions, with temperature and annealing plateau duration as parameters. Finally, the codiffusion process is investigated using simulations. It indicates that diffusion of the dopant at the lowest fluence is slowed, much more because of the in-depth inhomogeneous grain growth induced by amorphization and annealing, than a built-in electric field. Then, it should be assumed that the dopant at the highest dose saturates the grain boundary traps. This hypothesis concerns essentially arsenic, but also boron, to a less extent.
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