Dark Current Spectroscopy of Transition Metals in CMOS Image Sensors

Russo, Felice; Nardone, G.; Polignano, M. L.; D’Ercole, Angelo; Pennella, Fabrizio; Felice, Massimo Di; Monte, Andrea Del; Matarazzo, Antonio; Moccia, G.; Polsinelli, G.; D’Angelo, Antonio; Liverani, Massimo; Irrera, Fernanda

doi:10.1149/2.0101705jss

Cited by 25 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…They found that the dark current spectrum intensity strongly depends on the concentration of intentional metallic contamination. Moreover, semiconductor manufacturers have used DCS for metallic impurity contamination analysis of CCD and CMOS image sensor [41,45,46,47,48]. Here, we decided to focus on using DCS to analyze white-spot defects in CMOS image sensors fabricated on an actual production line.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proximity Gettering Design of Hydrocarbon–Molecular–Ion–Implanted Silicon Wafers Using Dark Current Spectroscopy for CMOS Image Sensors

Kurita

Kadono

Shigematsu

et al. 2019

Sensors

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We developed silicon epitaxial wafers with high gettering capability by using hydrocarbon–molecular–ion implantation. These wafers also have the effect of hydrogen passivation on process-induced defects and a barrier to out-diffusion of oxygen of the Czochralski silicon (CZ) substrate bulk during Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) device fabrication processes. We evaluated the electrical device performance of CMOS image sensor fabricated on this type of wafer by using dark current spectroscopy. We found fewer white spot defects compared with those of intrinsic gettering (IG) silicon wafers. We believe that these hydrocarbon–molecular–ion–implanted silicon epitaxial wafers will improve the device performance of CMOS image sensors.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proximity Gettering Design of Hydrocarbon–Molecular–Ion–Implanted Silicon Wafers Using Dark Current Spectroscopy for CMOS Image Sensors

Kurita

Kadono

Shigematsu

et al. 2019

Sensors

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“…Russo and coworkers demonstrated the effects of the dark current of a CMOS image sensor intentionally contaminated with metallic impurities (Cr, V, Cu, Ni, Fe, Ti, Mo, W, Al, and Zn) and used DCS to evaluate them. (47,48) Their results indicate that the Mo, W, Cu, and Ti impurities have greater effects on dark current generation than other metallic impurities. This is because, the Mo, W, Cu, and Ti impurities form deep-energy-level defects in the silicon band gap.…”

Section: Gettering Capability Of Hydrocarbon-molecular-ion-implanted mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Proximity Gettering Technology for CMOS Image Sensors Using Hydrocarbon Molecular Ion Implantation

Kurita¹,

Kadono²,

Okuyama³

et al. 2019

Sensors and Materials

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We developed a high-gettering-capability silicon wafer for advanced CMOS image sensors using hydrocarbon molecular ion implantation. We found that this novel silicon wafer has an extremely high gettering capability for metal, oxygen, and hydrogen impurities during the CMOS device fabrication process. We also found that the white spot defect density of a hydrocarbon-molecular-ion-implanted CMOS image sensor was substantially lower than that of a CMOS image sensor without hydrocarbon molecular ion implantation. This indicates that the novel silicon wafer helped improve device performance parameters such as white spot defect density and dark current. We believe that this wafer will be beneficial in the design of silicon wafers for advanced CMOS image sensor fabrication.

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“…Russo et al demonstrated that Ni and Cu contamination affects the dark current generation in a CMOS image sensor [ 28 ]. The Cu contamination in particular has the greater effect.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is considered that Peak 2 corresponds to the dark current induced by process-induced defects and not metallic-impurity-related defects. It is considered that generation of white spot defects is due to carrier generation via the impurityrelated deep levels in the space charge region of the photodiode [23,27,28]. This means that fewer white spot defects indicate a lower concentration of impurity-related defects in the active region of devices.…”

Section: Gettering Capability Of C 3 H 6 -Ion-implanted Double Epitaxial Si Wafersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dark current spectroscopy (DCS) is well known to be an extremely powerful method for analyzing the metallic impurity contamination in charge-coupled devices (CCDs) and CMOS image sensors [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. The dark current intensity in image sensors evaluated by DCS strongly depends on the density of metallic-impurity-related defects in the space charge region of the photodiode.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reduction of Dark Current in CMOS Image Sensor Pixels Using Hydrocarbon-Molecular-Ion-Implanted Double Epitaxial Si Wafers

Onaka‐Masada

Kadono

Okuyama

et al. 2020

Sensors

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The impact of hydrocarbon-molecular (C3H6)-ion implantation in an epitaxial layer, which has low oxygen concentration, on the dark characteristics of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor pixels was investigated by dark current spectroscopy. It was demonstrated that white spot defects of CMOS image sensor pixels when using a double epitaxial silicon wafer with C3H6-ion implanted in the first epitaxial layer were 40% lower than that when using an epitaxial silicon wafer with C3H6-ion implanted in the Czochralski-grown silicon substrate. This considerable reduction in white spot defects on the C3H6-ion-implanted double epitaxial silicon wafer may be due to the high gettering capability for metallic contamination during the device fabrication process and the suppression effects of oxygen diffusion into the device active layer. In addition, the defects with low internal oxygen concentration were observed in the C3H6-ion-implanted region of the double epitaxial silicon wafer after the device fabrication process. We found that the formation of defects with low internal oxygen concentration is a phenomenon specific to the C3H6-ion-implanted double epitaxial wafer. This finding suggests that the oxygen concentration in the defects being low is a factor in the high gettering capability for metallic impurities, and those defects are considered to directly contribute to the reduction in white spot defects in CMOS image sensor pixels.

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Dark Current Spectroscopy of Transition Metals in CMOS Image Sensors

Cited by 25 publications

References 47 publications

Proximity Gettering Design of Hydrocarbon–Molecular–Ion–Implanted Silicon Wafers Using Dark Current Spectroscopy for CMOS Image Sensors

Proximity Gettering Design of Hydrocarbon–Molecular–Ion–Implanted Silicon Wafers Using Dark Current Spectroscopy for CMOS Image Sensors

A Review of Proximity Gettering Technology for CMOS Image Sensors Using Hydrocarbon Molecular Ion Implantation

Reduction of Dark Current in CMOS Image Sensor Pixels Using Hydrocarbon-Molecular-Ion-Implanted Double Epitaxial Si Wafers

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