The application of atomic hydrogen effects in silicon and silicon electronic devices technologies

Abstract

An overview of atomic hydrogen effects on the properties of monocrystalline Czochralski-grown (Cz) as well as polycrystalline silicon is presented. The hydrogen passivation of defects and impurities as well as enhancement of radiation hardness was observed. It is shown that the atomic hydrogen acts as a catalyst and can significantly enhance the rate of thermal donors (TDs) formation in p-type Cz Si. This effect is used for the production of the n-p, p-n-p and n-p-n silicon based device structures. The depths of the p-n junctions are dependent on the injected hydrogen ion dose and on the thermal pre-treatments as well as interstitial oxygen concentration in Cz Si. It was shown that the buried defect layers created by hygh-energy hydrogen or helium implantation act as a good getter centers for hydrogen at appropriate heat treatment with the following hydrogenation. The use of this method for the realisation of an kind of SMART-CUT tecnology is discussed.