Dopant Activation and Defect Annihilation of

Heavily Doped Arsenic Implanted Silicon Layers

J, SAID*, H, JAOUEN*, G. GHIBAUDO*, I, STOEMENOS**,P. ZAUMSEIL***
*Laboratoire de Physique des Composants à Semiconducteurs, ENSERG, 23 Rue
des Martyrs, B.P. 257, 38016 Grenoble Cedex, France
**Department of Physics, University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
***Akademie der Wissenchaften der DDRf Institut fur Halbeiterphysik,
Frankfurt, Krosingstr 2, 1200-Frankfurtt GDR

Introduction

A of the effect of thermal annealing on defect annihilation in

study
heavilyarsenic implanted silicon has been carried out»
We investigate p-type (p=3.9fi.cm) silicon wafers with the <100>
orientation. Prior to the implantation, the wafers were provided with a 40
nm thick Si02 thermally grown passivating layer. The wafers were implan¬
ted at room temperature with As+ ions of E"200keV at doses
<t>=1013-10lscm~2. After implantation the silicon samples were subsequently
thermally annealed under a dry N2 flow at temperature ranging from 200°C
to 1100°C for various durations(15-900mn) .

The resistivity profiles of the implanted layers were deduced from the
gross Spreading Resistance curves by applying the Local Slope
Approximation of the Dickey model [1]. In addition, the samples were
analyzed by TEM and TCD in order to determine the spatial extension of the
defected region and the amorphous layer thickness at the surface of the
silicon sample both before and after thermal annealing.
Results and Discussion

The and TEM micrographs for a N+/P sample

resistivity profiles
implanted at 2xl0a4cm~2
isochronally annealed (60mn) at various
and
temperatures are shown on Fig.l* After annealing* the surface resistivity
of a low temperature annealed sample (400°C) drops by more than 1 decades,
though the surface layer Is still amorphous.
The above results, correlated with the sheet resistance data of [2],
lead us to conclude that this decrease of the surface resistivity occurs
at an annealing temperature around 420-430°C mainly because of the
electrical activation of the majority of the impurity atoms within a
highly damaged surface region. By contrast, the recrystallization of the
amorphous layer, that becomes Increasingly efficient at higher annealing
temperatures (Ta-550-600°C), does not induce a significant reduction of
the resistivity even around the amorphous-crystal interface where no
resistivity discontinuity appears (see Fig.l).
This last point suggests that a local impurity activation undergoes
both in the crystalline and the amorphous regions via a local
reconstruction process of which the relaxation time constante t(x) can be
represented by an expression of the form [3]:
? k T 1
f (x) «
-;- (1)
A IT q D(x) N(x)

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 226
with
E (x)
D (x) -

Do(x) exp (- k T
a
) , (2)

where D(x) and N(x) are respectively the diffusivity and concentration of
the point defects ensuring the electrical activation of the impurities, e
is the dielectric constant, q is the absolute electron charge and k is the
Boltzmann constant.
The activation energy Ea has been determined experimentally by a
proper analysis of the Arrhenius plot of the normalized resistivity[4]. As
a result» Ea is found to be weakly depth dependent and is always smaller
than 0.5 eV (Fig.2}.
Likewise, the variation of the relaxation time with depth, -r(x), has
been also deduced (Fig.2). t(x) essentially increases when going from the
surface towards the substrate. This feature is consistent with the adopted
local relaxation process in which it is shown that the relaxation time is
inversely proportional to the diffusivity and the concentration of the
point defect species involved in the doping activation.
Besides, Triple crystal diffraction experiments have been conducted
on the same samples. As is well known [5], X ray method are sensitive to a
relative change of the lattice constant e and to the static lattice
disorder through the Debye-Waller factor expi-L^) [6]. Fig.3 shows the
results of TOD analysis for a low temperature annealed sample and a well
annealed one. It must be pointed out that, since the tetrahedral radius of
arsenic is nearly the same as that of silicon, substitutional arsenic does
not change the lattice constant of the doped layer. Therefore, the TCD
data are actually indicative of the lattice distorsion due to implantation
induced defects. In particular, the negative surface strain is likely
related to an excess of vacancies while the positive strain is associated
with an excess of interstitials.
Moreover, the comparison of the values of the activation energy of
Fig. 3 with those of usual point defect migrations (0.25eV for a
vacancy-interstitial pair, 0.51eV for silicon interstitials, 0.8eV for a
vacancy-As4" complex and 0.33eV for vacancy [7,8]) suggests that the
migrating species involved in the annealing process should be associated
with a vacancy and/or an interstitial diffusion. More precisely, in view
of the evolution of Ea{x), it can be concluded, in agreement with our TCD
data, that vacancy-like defects are presumably the dominant species in the
first lOOnm, while interstitials seem to prevail above lOOnm,
Besides, Fig.4 displays the values of the activation energy both of
the relaxation time constant associated with the electrical local
activation process and that of the regrowth velocity corresponding to the
recrystallizatlon mechanism as obtained from our TEM analysis and from the
littérature [9]. It is clear from Fig.4 that the activation energies
deduced from our resistivity data, Ea~0.1-0,5eV, are in any case much
smaller than those for a regrowth process, Eaci2.5-2. 7eV, In the former
case, the electrical activation of the impurity undergoes via a low energy
consumming mechanism whereas, in the latter one, the Solid Phase Epitaxy
Involves a higher energy consumming process in which the re-ordering at
the interface requires the breaking of silicon bonds [10].

Conclusion

It has been shown that the dopant electrical activation in highly doped
arsenic implanted silicon is independent of the reconstruction mechanism
occuring by Solid Phase Epitaxy. In contrast, the impurity activation

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 227
process has been shown to be satisfactorily described by a local
relaxation model in which the relaxation time is inversely proportional to
the diffusivity and the concentration o£ the point defects leading to the
dopant incorporation. Regarding the values of the activation energies
found for this process, it is suggested that the migration of vacancies
nnd/or silicon interstitials presumably playa a prevailing role in the
impurity activation process.
300°C

A0O°C

Fig.l. Raslstivity profiles and TEM

500°C micrographs as obtained afterN^/Pvarious
isochronal (lh) annenlB for type
arsenic Implanted samples ( ZxlO * ''As/cm' ).

900°C

0 12 3
Depth (um)

Fig.2. Variations of activation energy and

time constant with depth for a Nf/P sample
Implanted at 2xlol''crTrz.

0100 200
Depth Inml

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 228

T» ra= 500 1000

from our SPE_daïa
from SPE
=r 2.5 analysis
Reí (10}

OU L from our 9 dafa

100 200 10h 10* 10

(bl Depth fnml Impl. dosa (cm"

Fig.3. Mechanicnl relative strain (0) ond Fig.l. Activation energy variations w
Debye-Wallec factor (b) variations with implantation dose as obtained from
depth ae obtained by TCD mcoouremento resistivity data {depth- 80nm) and f
(101?As/cmz, 200KeV). SPE analysie.

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