International Business Machines Corporation

Stephen Richard Fox

Devendra K Sadana

Kenneth John Giewont

Junedong Lee

Neena Garg

Dan Moy

Maurice Heathcote Norcott

Siegfried Lutz Maurer

Anthony Gene Domenicucci

Michael E Adamcek

Thomas R Kupiec

A method for forming a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate is described incorporating the steps of heating a substrate, implanting oxygen into a heated substrate, cooling the substrate, implanting into a cooled substrate and annealing. The steps of implanting may be at several energies to provide a plurality of depths and corresponding buried damaged regions. Prior to implanting, the step of cleaning the substrate surface and/or forming a patterned mask thereon may be performed. The invention overcomes the problem of raising the quality of buried oxide and its properties such as surface roughness, uniform thickness and breakdown voltage V.

Control of buried oxide in SIMOX

A method of fabricating a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) having a superficial Si-containing layer that has a reduced number of tile and divot defects is provided. The method includes the steps of: implanting oxygen ions into a surface of a Si-containing substrate, the implanted oxygen ions having a concentration sufficient to form a buried oxide region during a subsequent annealing step; and annealing the substrate containing implanted oxygen ions under conditions wherein the implanted oxygen ions form a buried oxide region which electrically isolates a superficial Si-containing layer from a bottom Si-containing layer. Moreover, the annealing conditions employed are capable of reducing the number of tile or divot defects present in the superficial Si-containing layer so as to allow optical detection of any other defect that has a lower density than the tile or divot defect. The present invention also relates to the SOI substrate that is produced using the inventive method.

Divot reduction in SIMOX layers

A method for forming a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate is described incorporating the steps of heating a substrate, implanting oxygen into a heated substrate, cooling the substrate, implanting into a cooled substrate and annealing. The steps of implanting may be at several energies to provide a plurality of depths and corresponding buried damaged regions. Prior to implanting, the step of cleaning the substrate surface and/or forming a patterned mask thereon may be performed. The invention overcomes the problem of raising the quality of buried oxide and its properties such as surface roughness, uniform thickness and breakdown voltage V .

A method to control the quality of a buried oxide region, and to substantially reduce or eliminate deep divots in SOI substrates is provided. Specifically, the inventive method includes the steps of implanting oxygen ions into a surface of a Si-containing substrate; and annealing the Si-containing substrate containing the implanted oxygen ion at a temperature of about 1300&deg; C. or above and in a chlorine-containing ambient so as to form a buried oxide region that electrically isolates a superficial Si-containing layer from a bottom Si-containing layer. The chlorine-containing ambient employed in the annealing step includes oxygen and a chlorine-containing carrier gas such as HCl, methylene chloride, trichloroethylene and trans 1,2-dichloroethane.

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Hopewell Junction, NY, United States of America

Stephen Richard Fox