An analysis of high temperature (≥1150 °C) furnace annealing of buried oxide wafers formed by ion implantation

Silicon-on-insulator films were formed by ion implantation of oxygen and were treated with various annealing cycles at peak temperatures of 1150 °C, 1200 °C, and 1250 °C in a conventional diffusion furnace. The objective of this study was to examine the structural effects on samples with similar oxygen diffusion lengths (from 17 to 33 μm) achieved by annealing at different times and temperatures. The oxygen and silicon distributions, as well as the residual damage and precipitate size and distribution, were measured by Auger electron microscopy, Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. In agreement with previous findings, higher temperatures produced a larger and less defective, “precipitate-free” superficial Si region. The buried oxide layer thickened from 0.33 μm to a maximum of 0.43 μm as some precipitates were incorporated into the buried oxide while others adjacent to the buried oxide grew in size (up to 47 nm) and decreased in relative number. A new result of this systematic study of annealing conditions was that the peak temperature has a greater effect on the morphology and crystal quality of the superficial Si structure than does time at temperature. Structural changes for longer anneals at 1150 °C are not equivalent to shorter anneals at 1250 °C even though the diffusion length of oxygen for these treatments is the same.