Influence of Impurity-Decorated Stacking Faults on the Transient Response of Metal Oxide Semiconductor Capacitors

The emergence of crystalline silicon and silicon-based materials such as silicon-germanium as the premier materials and the personnel driving the integrated circuit ͑IC͒ microelectronics revolution will be reviewed. The major threshold events from the 1940s through the mid-1960s, presaging the onset of the large scale integration microelectronics era, will be highlighted. The major silicon material challenges such as dislocation-free single-crystal growth, plastic deformation, the point-defect dilemma, gettering, oxygen in silicon, carrier lifetime, and controlled point-defects in the silicon crystal during the evolution of silicon microelectronics from large scale integration through the very large scale integration era in the 1970s and the 1980s into the ultralarge scale integration era of the 1990s will then be reviewed. Opportunities in epitaxy, wafer cleaning, silicon-on-insulator, silicon-germanium, IC scaling and potential changes in device configuration and IC architecture in the evolution towards the 64 Gbit DRAM and 9 G transistor high-performance MPU logic era in 2016 ͑per the 2001 edition of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors͒ will be discussed in the context of silicon-based microelectronics. The complementary role of compound semiconductors, nanoelectronics and the continuing initiative to obtain an optoelectronic system compatible with silicon will also be discussed. Finally, nonsilicon materials and device configurations will briefly be noted. © 2002 The Electrochemical Society. ͓DOI: 10.1149/1.1471893͔ All rights reserved.Available electronicallyApril 11, 2002. The computer and communications age has catapulted electronics to its current status as the dominant global industry. Indeed, we are in the midst of a revolution brought about by the availability of inexpensive information acquisition, manipulation, and distribution systems. Exploitation of electron and hole conduction in silicon has resulted in electronic memory and logic circuits such as the dynamic random access memory ͑DRAM͒ and microprocessor. Control of the interaction of photons with compound semiconductors has resulted in optical devices such as the laser and optical fiber networks. This revolution has been and will continue to be dependent on our ability to control electronic and photonic material processing techniques for the manufacture of useful devices, circuits and systems. The preparation and detailed processing sequence of a material from crystal growth through device and circuit fabrication determines the microstructure and, therefore, the electronic properties of the material and resulting device and circuit performance, yield, and reliability. Electronic materials include semiconductors, dielectrics, magnetics, piezoelectrics, optoelectronic materials, and optical fibers which may be utilized in crystalline, polycrystalline, or amorphous form. Materials are indeed the sine qua non of electronic and optical devices and circuits.An extensive list of relevant citations through 1997 is noted in Ref. ...

Section: Gettering Methodologies (Nonoxygen Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Electronics Division Retrospective (1952-2002) and Future Opportunities in the Twenty-First Century

Huff¹

2002

“…10. The graph shows that the value of 1/tg is n~arly proportional to defect density d. Therefore, 1/tg can be expressed by 1/t~ ~-k " d + llto where k is the proportional constant which defines the electrical activity of defects expressed in cm2/~sec and to is background generation lifetime expressed in ~sec (24). The constant k had a value of 2 • 10 -6 in Fig.…”

Section: Suppression Of Defect Formation By ~Aser Damagementioning

confidence: 99%

Laser Damage Gettering and Its Application to Lifetime Improvement in Silicon

Hayafuji

Yanada

Aoki

1981

Lattice defects induced by laser irradiation and their thermal stability during subsequent oxidation were studied by transmission electron microscopy, x‐ray topography, and preferential etching. High power laser pulses above 20 J/cm2 produced dislocation lines and dislocation clusters. Laser pulses of about 15 J/cm2 also generated dislocation clusters and pseudo‐swirl defects in the irradiated region. All of these defects were thermally stable. However, thermally stable defects were not observed when laser pulses of less than 15 J/cm2 were used, although unstable dislocations were generated. The suppression of defect formation by laser damage gettering was examined using Sirtl etching. It was found that thermally stable dislocations and pseudo‐swirl defects acted as sinks for point defects and prevented the formation of precipitates during a subsequent oxidation. Laser damage gettering was used to improve generation lifetime in metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (MOS) capacitors with the result that generation lifetime in the gettered area was improved by two orders of magnitude over that in the ungettered area.

“…However, it has been reported that OISF-related degradation in electrical properties was observed only when the stacking faults were decorated with impurities (20,21). It has also been reported that metallic impurities such as Fe, Cr, Ni, Cu, and Au could often be introduced as contaminants during epitaxial processing (22,23).…”

Section: Table II Minority Carrier Generation Lifetimes In Epitaxial ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Substrate Oxygen Content and Preannealing on the Properties of Silicon Epitaxial Layers

Tsui

Curless

d’Aragona

et al. 1984

A study was carried out to evaluate whether the quality of Si epitaxial layers could improve if they were deposited on substrates intrinsically gettered through thermal annealing. Three different two-step procedures were used to preanneal the substrates prior to deposition. Optical microscopy revealed the presence of defect-free (denuded) zones at the surfaces of preannealed substrates only when the initial concentrations of interstitial oxygen in the substrates were >1.5 x 10 's atoms cm -3, and if the high temperature step of the preannealing was carried out in a nonoxygen ambient. While the density of oxidation-induced stacking faults in the epitaxial layers showed no such dependence, the minority carrier generation lifetimes in the layers were strongly dependent on the oxygen content and thermal history of the substrates. Layers deposited on preannealed substrates of high initial oxygen content exhibited the greatest lifetimes. It is believed that oxygen precipitates and related defects, when present in a substrate, getter metallic impurities introduced during processing away from the epitaxial layer and thus improve lifetimes. Such gettering appeared to be most effective when the substrates had both surface denuded zones and high densities of bulk defects.