Ion Implantation

VLSI Technology

Dr. T. R. Lenka
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering
National Institute of Technology Silchar
 Ion Implantation
The material engineering process by which ions of a
material are accelerated in an electrical field and
impacted into a solid. By which physical, chemical, or
electrical properties of the solid can be altered. It is
similar to diffusion (not same).
 Diffusion vs Ion Implantation
Diffusion
High Temperature Process
It has Lateral Diffusion.
High throughput due to batch
processing.
We can’t Control the amount
of dopant.
It is non-destructive process.
Less Costly.
Ion Implantation
Low Temperature Process
It is Very Directional and can
form very shallow junctions.
Batch processing is not
possible.
We can precisely control the
dopants.
Damages the crystal structure
so we need to do annealing.
It is expensive over Diffusion.
Ion Implantation Process Flow
 Ion Stopping

1.Each implanted ion impinges onto

the target, it undergoes a series of
collisions with the host atoms until
it finally stops at some depth.

S: Total stopping power.

2.Collisions due to Nuclear

forces are elastic where as
Electronic collisions are inelastic..
Fig: Monte Carlo calculation of 128 ion trajectories for 50 keV boron implanted into
silicon.
 Ion Stopping Velocity

Fig:Nuclear and electronic components of the ion stopping power as a function of ion
velocity. The quantity v0 is the Bohr velocity, and Zl is the ion atomic number.
 Stopping Energies

Sn= = N ∫0Tmax T dσ
Sn : Total nuclear stopping power.
N:Target atoms/unit volume.
dσ :Differential cross section.
Tmax: Maximum transferable energy in collisions.
T: Energy lost by the incoming ion
The theoretical modelling of the Electron stopping is quite
complex, but in low energy regime it is similar to a viscous
drag force and is proportional to the ion velocity.

Note: Both nuclear and Electron stopping energies causes

damage to the target.
 Stopping Energies Cont…
 classical kinematics. If the atoms were bare nuclei, then at a
separation r, the columbic potential between them would be:
Z1,Z2:atomic numbers of implanted and
target atoms.
R: separation between them.

But practically electrons screen the nuclear charge so

V(r) =Vc(r) fs(r) fs(r): Screening function.
The energy lost by the incoming ion is

M1,M2:Atomic mass numbers.

Ө:Scattering angle.
E:Energy of the ion.
 Range Distributions

Fig: Schematic views of the ion range. (a) The total path length R is longer than the
projected Rp. (b) The stopped atom distribution is two-dimensional Gaussian.
 Range Distributions Cont…

Projected Range(Rp): The average total path length travelled by

ion.

Projected Straggle ΔRp : The average depth of the implanted ions.

σp or ΔRp: Standard deviation.
n(x), the ion concentration at depth x, is given by

n0 :peak concentration=

Φ: Total implanted dose.

 Boron Range Distributions

Fig:Boron implanted atom distributions, comparing measured data points with four-
moment (Pearson IV) and Gaussian fitted distributions. The boron was implanted into
amorphous silicon without annealing.
 Channeling
❖The objective of Channeling is to add tail to atom distributions

❖Channeling is characterized by a critical angle, ψ1, which is the

Maximum angle between ion and channel for a glancing collision to
occur.
❖If we neglect thermal vibrations,

where E is the ion energy (keV) and

d is the atomic spacing
From above Equation reveals that channelling is more likely
for heavier ions (higher Z) and lower energy.
 Channeling Cont…

▪The channelled atom profile is

sensitive to changes on the order of
1o in wafer tilt and
▪Beam divergence and ions are
scattered by amorphous surface films
and residual damage from previous
processing steps.

Fig:Electrically active arsenic distribution as a

function of beam angle. The “random equivalent”
case is the usual 7o tilt used to avoid channelling,
and still shows significant differences from a
Gaussian.
 Recoils
❖For the composite target, atoms will be displaced from one layer
into the underlying layer during the implantation process.

❖Depending on the materials involved, this phenomenon can be

either useful or deleterious.

❖Primary oxygen recoils give rise to a deeper exponential tail. This

can degrade carrier mobility and introduce deep level traps.

❖Recoil mixing can be utilized to introduce dopant atoms that cannot

be readily made into a source for implantation machines but can be
deposited as a thin film on a silicon substrate.
 Recoils Cont…

❖Implanting silicon through the film

will push a dopant tail into silicon.

❖Self-implantation can also be

utilized to break up thin contaminant
layers under deposited films prior to
further processing, such as the
formation of a metal silicide.

Fig:Oxygen recoils from the implantation of arsenic through an oxide layer. Solid lines are
from Boltzmann calculations. Dashed lines indicate the two exponential regions of the
recoil distribution.
 Implanter Equipment

0 to 175
kV

Neutral beam trap

R R R and beam gate
Beam trap
Neutral beam
C C C
Resolving aperture

2 Integrator

90o Q
analyzing
magnet 3
Focus
Acceleration 5
tube
Ion y-axis
1 scanner 4 x-axis
souce 25 kV scanner Wafer in process chamber

 Fig : Cross-section of an ion implanter

 Instrumentation Cont…
Φ: Dose,Q: is the charge on the ion
A: Area o cross section, I:Current in the ion
t:Implantation time.
Dose: Total no of ions entering the target.

❖Experimentally, it is relatively easy to unveil vertical atomic

profiles.

❖A two-dimensional distribution can be written as the product of

vertical and lateral distributions:

σ⊥: Vertical Standard deviation.

 Ion Implantation System

 Ion implanter is a high-voltage accelerator of high-energy

impurity ions.
 Major components are:
 Ion source (gases such as AsH3 , PH3 , B2H6).
 Mass Spectrometer (selects the ion of interest. Gives
excellent purity control).
 HV Accelerator (voltage up to 1 MeV).
 Scanning System (x-y deflection plates for electronic
control).
 Target Chamber (vacuum).
 Ion Implantation System Cont…

ION ION ION

❖ High energy ion enters crystal SOURCE EXTRACTION SEPARATION

ANODE MAGNET
lattice and collides with atoms FILAMENT
CATHODE
and interacts with electrons. SOURCE OF
ELEMENT MAGNET
ANODE MAGNET

❖ Each collision or interaction

reduces energy of ion until it
comes to rest. ION
ACCELERATION

❖ Interactions are a complex

distribution. Models have been
built and tested against
observation. ELECTROSTATIC
DEFLECTION

TARGET
 Implant Uniformity

❖Nonuniformity of implanted dopants across a wafer can be readily

unravelled from sheet resistance measurements.
❖

Fig: Sheet resistance maps of three samples implanted with 50 keV phosphours as
a function of dose: (a) 5 x 1013 cm-2, (b) 2 x 1014 cm-2, (c) 2 x 1015 cm-2.
 Annealing

❖Annealing needs to be done to repair the damages after the ion

implantation. Measured by using Hall effect technique.

μ : mobility,
n : number of carriers, and
xj :junction depth.

❖If the mobility is not a strong function of depth, NHall measures

the total number of electrically active dopant atoms.

❖ If annealing activates all of the implanted atoms, this value

should be equivalent to the dose, φ.
 Types of RTA

Fig: Schematic of an isothermal

Fig:Schematic of a furnace rapid thermal annealing rapid thermal annealing system.
system.
 Comparison of Annealing Profiles

Laser annealing activates the

dopant without significant
diffusion.

Fig:Comparison of annealed profiles using

conventional furnace and laser RTA methods.
 Types of Implantation

❖ Low Energy Implantation: To form Shallow junctions.

❖ High Energy Implantation: To form tubs in CMOS.

Fig: Cross section of an epi-substrate CMOS device.(High Energy method)

 Model for Ion Implantation

❖ The implanted
impurity profile can
be approximated by
the Gaussian
distribution
function.

❖ For an implant
contained within
silicon:
Q = (2π)0.5 NP RP
 Model for Ion Implantation Cont…

❖ Model developed by Lindhard, Scharff and Schiott (LSS)

❖ Range and straggle roughly proportional to energy over wide

range

❖ Ranges in Si and SiO2 roughly the same

❖ Computer models now available at low cost for PCs

 Model for Ion Implantation Cont…

❖ Range of impurities in Si

1.0 B

As
Projected range (mm)

Sb

0.1

Rp

0.01
10 100 1000
Acceleration energy (keV)
 Model for Ion Implantation Cont…

❖ Straggle of impurities in Si

0.10
Normal and transverse straggle

Sb
B
(mm)

P
0.01
As
Rp
R

0.002
10 100 1000
Acceleration energy (keV)
 SiO2 as a Barrier
❖ SiO2 serves as an excellent barrier against ion-implantation

SiO2 Silicon

Np

NB
N(X0)

0 Rp X0
Depth, x
 SiO2 as a Barrier Cont…
❖ The minimum oxide thickness for selective implantation:
❖ Xox = RP + RP (2 ln(10NP/NBulk))0.5
❖ An oxide thickness equal to the projected range plus six times
the straggle should mask most ion implants.
❖ A silicon nitride barrier layer needs only be 85% of the
thickness of an oxide barrier layer.

❖ A photoresist barrier must be 1.8 times the thickness of an

oxide layer under the same implantation conditions.

❖ Metals are of such a high density that even a very thin layer
will mask most implantations.
 Profile Control
❖ Various shapes of profiles can be created by varying the
energy of the incident beam
NITROGEN CONCENTRATION (ATOMIC PERCENT)

FINAL PROFILE
15
200 KILOELECTRON
VOLTS

10 100

50

10 20
5

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
DEPTH (NANOMETERS)
 Radiation Damage

❖ Impact of incident ions knocks atoms off lattice sites

❖ With sufficient dose, can make amorphous Si layer

Fig: Radiation damage

 Radiation Damage
❖ Critical
dose to make layer amorphous varies with
temperature and impurity
1018

Critical dose (atom/cm2) 1017

1016

B
1015
P
1014 Sb

1013
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Temperature, 1000/T (K-1)

❖ Radiationdamage can be removed by annealing at 800-

1000oC for 30 min. After annealing, almost all impurities
become electronically active.
 Ion Implantation Through SiO2

❖ Implanting through a sacrificial oxide layer:

❖ Large ions (arsenic) can be slowed down a little before
penetrating into the silicon.
❖ The crystal lattice damage is suppressed (at the expense
of the depth achieved).
❖ Collisions with the thin masking layer tends to cause the
dopant ions to change direction randomly, thereby
suppressing channeling effect.
❖ The concentration peak can be brought closer to the
silicon surface.
 Implantation Concentration

❖ Fordeep diffusion (>1µm), implantation is used to

introduce a certain dose, and thermal diffusion is used to
drive in the dopants.

❖ The resulting profile after diffusion can be determined by:

 Advantages Over Diffusion
❖ Low temperature process

❖ Allows wider range of barrier materials and dose.

❖ Permits wider range of impurities

❖ Better control of dose

❖ Can control impurity concentration profile

❖ Can introduce very shallow layers

 Ion Implantation Example

❖ A boron implantation is to be performed through a 50nm

oxide so that the peak concentration is at the Si-SiO2
interface. The implant dose in silicon is to be 1013/cm2.
What are the energy of the implant and the peak
concentration at the interface?
❖ Peakat Si-oxide interface → RP = 0.05µm → Energy =
15keV (RP=0.023µm)

❖ Implanteddose in silicon = 1013 → Q=2x1013 →NP =

Q/2.5RP = 3.5x1018/cm3
 Ion Implantation Example Cont…
❖ How thick should the oxide layer be to mask the implant if the
background concentration is 1016/cm3?
❖ Xox = 0.05 + 0.023(2 ln(10 x 3.5 x 1018/1016))0.5 = 0.14µm

❖ Ifthe oxide layer is 50nm, how much photoresist is required

on top of the oxide to completely mask the implant?
❖ PR thickness = 1.8 x (oxide thickness) = 1.8 x (0.14 – 0.05)
= 0.16µm
Thank You!