Maximum Active Concentration of Ion-Implanted Phosphorus During Solid-Phase Epitaxial Recrystallization

In this paper, we showed that the maximum active P concentration of approximately 2 times10²⁰ cm^-3 exists during solid-phase epitaxial recrystallization (SPER). This maximum active concentration is close to the reported values for other active impurity concentrations during SPER. We introduced the concept of an isolated impurity that has no neighbor impurities with a certain lattice range. Assuming that impurities interact with three or four neighbor impurities, we can explain the activation phenomenon during SPER. According to our model, the isolated P concentration N _iso has a maximum value of approximately 2 times10²⁰ cm^-3 at a total impurity concentration of approximately 10²¹ cm^-3, and it decreases with a further increase in total impurity concentration. Deactivation occurs after the completion of SPER with increasing annealing time, and the active impurity concentration decreases with time but is always higher than the maximum diffusion concentration N _{Diff max}. We also observed that N _{Diff max} is independent of the annealing time despite nonthermal activation in the high-concentration region. We evaluated the dependence of N _{Diff max} on annealing temperatures. We think that this N _{Diff max} can be regarded as the electrical solid solubility N _Esol that the active impurity concentration reaches in thermal equilibrium. We observed the transient enhanced diffusion (TED) after the completion of SPER, and that, the deactivation process continues during and after TED, and the corresponding diffusion coefficient is still much higher than that in thermal equilibrium even after TED has finished, which suggests that the deactivation process releases point defects.     

Valence band structure of GexSi1-x for holetransport calculation

We have calculated the hole densities of states and the velocities as functions of energy in strained and relaxed p-type Ge_xSi _1-x layers grown on 〈001〉 Si substrates. It is shown that the nonparabolic and nonspherical effects are very large in the energy range of (0, 0.2 eV) measured from the heavy hole band edge. Deeper into the valence band, the bands gradually become parabolic and spherical. For most applications, the impurity doping concentration is below 10²⁰ cm^-3. For 10²⁰ cm^-3 p-type doped Si, the Fermi level is 77.3 meV at 77 K. It is therefore concluded that the nonparabolic and nonspherical effects must be taken into proper consideration when investigating the transport properties of p-type Ge_xSi_1-x samples. The calculated data of both relaxed and strained Ge_xSi_1-x valence band structures are curve fitted and a data library is built up for further study of the hole transport properties. The mobility and the diffusion coefficient are largely affected when the doping concentration is increased. It is found that at high doping concentration the contributions from the light hole and spin split-off bands become very important, they can become even larger than the contribution from the heavy hole band, even if their densities of states are smaller than that of the heavy hole band     

Impurity effect on high-field transport properties of electrons in silicon

Monte Carlo calculations have been performed on the effect of ionized impurities on high-field electron transport at 300 K in silicon. For concentrations higher that 10^{18} cm^{-3} the impurity effects on drift velocity and mean energy are still present at field strength as high as 10⁵V . cm^-1and a superohmic behavior ofv_{d}(E)is found.     

Effect of zinc impurity on silicon solar-cell efficiency

Zinc is a major residue impurity in the preparation of solar-grade silicon material by the zinc vapor reduction of silicon tetrachloride. This paper projects that in order to get a 17-percent AM1 cell efficiency for the Block IV module of the Low-Cost Solar Array Project,¹the concentration of the zinc recombination centers in the base region of silicon solar cells must be less than 4 × 10¹¹Zn/cm³in the p-base n+/p/p+ cell and 7 × 10¹¹Zn/cm³in the n-Base p+/n/n+ cell for a base dopant impurity concentration of 5 × 10¹⁴atoms/cm³. If the base dopant impurity concentration is increased by a factor of 10 to 5 × 10¹⁵atoms/cm³, then the maximum allowable zinc concentration is increased by a factor of about two for a 17-percent AM1 efficiency. The thermal equilibrium electron and hole recombination and generation rates at the double-acceptor zinc centers are obtained from previous high-field measurements as well as new measurements at zero field described in this paper. These rates are used in the exact dc-circuit model to compute the projections.     

On the universality of inversion layer mobility in Si MOSFET's:Part I-effects of substrate impurity concentration

This paper reports the studies of the inversion layer mobility in n- and p-channel Si MOSFET's with a wide range of substrate impurity concentrations (10¹⁵ to 10¹⁸ cm^-3). The validity and limitations of the universal relationship between the inversion layer mobility and the effective normal field (E_eff) are examined. It is found that the universality of both the electron and hole mobilities does hold up to 10¹⁸ cm ^-3. The E_eff dependences of the universal curves are observed to differ between electrons and holes, particularly at lower temperatures. This result means a different influence of surface roughness scattering on the electron and hole transports. On substrates with higher impurity concentrations, the electron and hole mobilities significantly deviate from the universal curves at lower surface carrier concentrations because of Coulomb scattering by the substrate impurity. Also, the deviation caused by the charged centers at the Si/SiO₂ interface is observed in the mobility of MOSFET's degraded by Fowler-Nordheim electron injection     

Ion-implanted double-drift Ka-band diodes

The application of a doubly charged boron (¹¹B⁺²) beam to the formation of p-type drift regions in symmetrical Ka-band double-drift silicon IMPATT diodes is discussed. Devices fabricated with these implanted impurity distributions exhibited output powers ∼1.2 W with 10-percent conversion efficiencies over the frequency range of 29 to 39 GHz.     

Electrical, structural, and optical characterization of free-standing GaN template grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy

Electrical, structural, and optical properties of a free-standing 200 μm thick n-type GaN template grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy have been investigated. Hall mobilities of 1100 and 6800 cm²/V s have been obtained at room temperature and 50 K, respectively. Quantitative analysis of acceptor concentration, donor concentration and donor activation energy has been conducted through simultaneous fitting of the temperature dependent Hall mobility and carrier concentration data which led to a donor concentration of 2.10×10¹⁶ cm⁻³ and an acceptor concentration of 4.9×10¹⁵ cm⁻³. The resultant donor activation energy is 18 meV. The analysis indicates that the dominant scattering mechanism at low temperatures is by ionized impurities. The extended defect concentrations on Ga- and N-faces were about 5×10⁵ cm⁻² for the former and about 1×10⁷ cm⁻² for the latter, as revealed by a chemical etch. The full width at half maximum of the symmetric (0 0 0 2) X-ray diffraction peak was 69″ and 160″ for the Ga- and N-faces, respectively. That for the asymmetric (10–14) peak was 103″ and 140″ for Ga- and N-faces, respectively. The donor bound exciton linewidth as measured on the Ga- and N-face (after a chemical etch to remove the damage) is about 1 meV each at 10 K. Instead of the commonly observed yellow band, this sample displayed a green band, which is centered at about 2.45 eV.     

Electron microprobe analysis of impurity heterogeneities in thermally grown silicon oxide

The electron probe X-ray microanalyzer is a powerful tool for studying impurity distribution and motion in thin films. This analytical instrument is capable of detecting metallic impurities present in areas as small as 1 × 10^-6mm²and in concentrations of greater than 1 × 10¹⁹atoms/cm³. The analysis requires no sample preparation and is essentially a nondestructive test. This instrument was used to examine unoxidized and oxidized silicon surfaces and a finished microcircuit. With the electron microprobe, aluminum-bearing regions approximately one microns in diameter were detected on the bare surface of mechanically polished silicon slices. These aluminum-rich regions are believed to be alumina abrasive used in polishing. If these regions are not removed by chemical etching they will generate oxide defects during oxidation. These defects were found to contain Al (1 × 10²¹atoms/cm³and Na (1 × 10²⁰atoms/cm³). Other oxide defects, i.e., pinholes, generated during oxidation varied in size from 0.5 to 5.0 microns and were found to contain Na (1×10²¹atoms/cm³) and K (5×10²¹atoms/cm³). Mg and Ca (1 × 10²⁰atoms/cm³) were occasionally observed in these defects. After oxidation, all these impurities could be removed with a hot hydrochloric acid and deionized water rinse; surprisingly, this treatment reduced the silicon surface charge in the MOS structure (X_{0} cong 1500Å) by approximately 1.4 × 10¹¹charges/cm². The surface charge could be further reduced by heating the oxidized wafer at 900°C in a silicon nitride tube.     

N掺杂MgZnO薄膜的p型导电稳定性研究

利用磁控溅射技术,以Mg0.06Zn0.94O为陶瓷靶材,制备了N掺杂p型Mg0.1 3Zn0.8 7O薄膜,薄膜的电阻率为42.45Ω·cm,载流子浓度为3.70×1017/cm3,迁移率为0.40cm2·V-1·s-1。研究了该薄膜p型导电性质在室温空气下随时间的变化情况。实验结果表明,薄膜的电阻率逐渐升高,载流子浓度降低,五个月以后,薄膜转变为n型导电,电阻率为85.58Ω·cm,载流子浓度为4.53×1016/cm3,迁移率为1.61cm2·V-1·s-1。真空热退火后重新转变为p型。结果显示,其p型导电类型的转变与在空气中吸附H2O或H2等形成浅施主有关。     

Electrical characterization of heavily doped polycrystalline silicon for high-frequency bipolar transistor application

Electrical conduction data from heavily doped p-type polysilicon thin films at room temperature and above are presented. Specifically, the sheet resistance, in the range from 1 kΩ/□ to 100 Ω/□ for a doping level of 10¹⁹cm^-3to 10²⁰cm^-3, is characterized over temperatures from 300 to 450 K. It is shown that the polysilicon resistivity, larger than the corresponding crystalline value by a factor ∼ 10, is flat over the entire temperature range used for measurement. This large resistivity is correlated to the degree of dopant activation and the mobility in polysiUcon. The measured mobility varying from 8 to 20 cm²/V . s is shown to be smaller than the crystalline mobility at the same doping level by a factor 7 ∼ 3. These data are comprehensively discussed and quantified, based on a distributed resistivity model.     

C-V Characteristics of GaP MOS diode with anodic oxide film

Gallium phosphide was anodically oxidized in an aqueous H2O2solution and MOS diodes were fabricated by the evaporation of aluminum. The resistivity and electric breakdown strength were higher than 10¹⁴Ω.cm and 6 × 10⁶V/cm, respectively. Almost no frequency dispersion was observed in the C-V curves from 100 Hz to 1 MHz. The C-V curve showed the injection-type hysteresis. From the hysteresis window, the transferred charged carriers were estimated to be about 9 × 10¹¹/cm². By leaving the diode biased at negative voltage or by shining light with energy higher than 1.8 eV, the curve shifted to negative voltage direction. The results indicate that the density of the fast interface states which follow the 100-Hz signal is very low but there exist deep electron traps with activation energy higher than 1.8 eV near the surface in the oxide film and the shallower electron traps which cause the hysteresis in the dark.     

Low-resistance ohmic contacts to p-type GaAs using Zn/Pd/Au metallization

We have fabricated the low resistance ohmic contacts to p-type GaAs. Specific contact resistances as low as 7 × 10^-7Ω.cm²have been obtained for contacts prepared by heat treating Zn/Pd/Au metallizations deposited on p-type epitaxial GaAs layers with an acceptor concentration of 1.5 × 10¹⁹cm^-3. These contacts are reproducible, simple to fabricate, exhibit excellent adhesion, and have a uniformly smooth surface morphology.     

The exact calculation of the electric field and potential at the metallurgical boundary of abrupt n1−n2 homojunctions

Exact analytical expressions for the potential and electric field at the metallurgical boundary of abrupt n₁−n₂ homojunctions in function of the donor concentrations are given. The graph of the potential drop over the higher doped n₂ region vs the impurity concentration ratio results in a universal curve when the majority carrier densities in both regions are much larger than the intrinsic carrier density. It is also demonstrated that the potential drop over the higher doped region can be approximated by the value of kT/q as soon as the impurity concentration ratio is larger than 10².     

A method for determining energy gap narrowing in highly doped semiconductors

A general experimental method for the determination of the phenomenological energy gap narrowingDeltaE_{G}in regions of semiconductor devices that have high concentrations of donor or acceptor impurity atoms is presented. The theoretical grounds for the method are discussed in detail, including the strong influence of Fermi-Dirac statistics on minority-carrier recombination in heavily doped regions. The method requires measurements only of the temperature dependence of de current; therefore it is very accurate. The values ofDeltaE_{G}deduced from the method are insensitive to the mechanisms controlling recombination and to the value of minority-carrier mobility in the heavily doped region; they are also independent of the value of nithe intrinsic carrier density, at a specific temperature. The values for the Si:As emitters of transistors and diodes were measured in the majority-carrier concentration range from 4 × 10¹⁸cm^-3to 2 × 10²⁰cm^-3.     

Properties of ion-implanted junctions in mercury—cadmium—telluride

The formation of n-p junctions by ion-implantation in Hg0.71Cd0.29Te is shown to be a result of implantation damage. n-p photodiodes have been made by implantation of Ar, B, Al, and P in a p-type substrate with acceptor concentration of 4 × 10¹⁶cm^-3. The implanted n-type layer is characterized by sheet electron concentration of 10¹⁴to 10¹⁵cm^-2and electron mobility higher than 10³cm². V^-1. s^-1, for ion doses in the range 10¹³-5 × 10¹⁴cm^-2. The photodiodes have a spectral cutoff of 5.2 µm, quantum efficiency higher than 80 percent, and differential resistance by area product above 2000 Ω . cm²at 77 K. The temperature dependence of the differential resistance is discussed. The junction capacitance dependence on reverse voltage fits a linearly graded junction model. Reverse current characteristics at 77 K have been investigated using gate-controlled diodes. The results suggest that reverse breakdown is dominated by interband tunneling in field-induced junctions at the surface, for both polarities of surface potential.     

High current p/p+-diamond Schottky diode

Epitaxial p-type Schottky diodes have been fabricated on p⁺ -substrate. While the activation energy of the epitaxial layer conductivity is 390 meV, that of the substrate is only 50 meV. At forward bias the substrate conductivity dominates above 150°C, leading for a 5×10^-5 cm² area contact to a series resistance of 14 Ω at 150°C reducing to 8 Ω at 500°C. To our knowledge, this is the lowest series resistance reported so far for a diamond Schottky diode enabling extremely high current densities of 10³ A/cm and a current rectification ratio at ±2 V of 10⁵ making these diodes already attractive as high temperature rectifiers     

Electrical characterization of annealed Ti/TiN/Pt contacts onN-type 6H-SiC epilayer

We report results of the electrical characteristics of in vacuo deposited Ti/TiN/Pt contact metallization on n-type 6H-SiC epilayer as function of impurity concentration in the range of 3.3×10¹⁷ cm^-3 to 1.9×10¹⁹ cm^-3. The as-deposited contacts are rectifying, except for the highly doped sample. Only the lesser doped remains rectifying after samples are annealed at 1000°C between 0.5 and 1 min in argon. Bulk contact resistance ranging from factors of 10^-5 to 10^-4 Ω-cm² and Schottky barrier height in the range of 0.54-0.84 eV are obtained. Adhesion problems associated with metal deposition on pre-processed titanium is not observed, leading to excellent mechanical stability. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) reveals the out diffusion of Ti-Si and agglomeration of Ti-C species at the epilayer surface. The contact resistance remains appreciably stable after treatment in air at 650°C for 65 h. The drop in SBH and the resulting stable contact resistance is proposed to be associated with the thermal activation of TiC diffusion barrier layer on the 6H-SiC epilayer during annealing     

Characterization of highly doped n- and p-type 6H-SiCpiezoresistors

Highly doped (~2×10¹⁹ cm^-3) n- and p-type 6H-SiC strain sensing mesa resistors configured in Wheatstone bridge integrated beam transducers were investigated to characterize the piezoresistive and electrical properties. Longitudinal and transverse gauge factors, temperature dependence of resistance, gauge factor (GF), and bridge output voltage were evaluated. For the n-type net doping level of 2×10¹⁹ cm^-3 the bridge gauge factor was found to be 15 at room temperature and 8 at 250°C. For this doping level, a TCR of -0.24%/°C and -0.74%/°C at 100°C was obtained for the n- and p-type, respectively. At 250°C, the TCR was -0.14%/°C and -0.34%/°C, respectively. In both types, for the given doping level, impurity scattering is implied to be the dominant scattering mechanism. The results from this investigation further strengthen the viability of 6H-SiC as a piezoresistive pressure sensor for high-temperature applications     

Electrical properties of a triode-like silicon vertical-channel JFET

A transition from triode-like to pentode-likeI_{d}-V_{d}characteristics is observed in diffusion-type vertical JFET's by varying the channel impurity concentration from 5 × 10¹⁴to 5 × 10¹⁵cm^-3. In calculatedI_{d}-V_{d}characteristics of a low concentration and short-channel JFET, Geurst's theory has been shown to agree qualitatively with the experimental curves. In a triode-like JFET, drain currents show two distinct drain-voltage-dependent regions. It has an exponential dependency when the drain current is less than 0.2 mA . cm^-1. It has annth power depndency on the drain voltage when the drain current is larger than 5 mA . cm^-1. Other important electrical properties are also calculated and compared with experimental data.     

Quantum effects in Si n-MOS inversion layer at high substrate concentration

The charge distribution at the semiconductgor-insulator interface is calculated for electrons by solving Schrödinger's and Poisson's equations self-consistently for particles obeying Fermi-Dirac statistics at 300 K. The results are applied to carriers in the channel of a crystalline MOSFET with the (100) axis perpendicular to the gate oxide. The inversion charge density calculated quantum mechanically is smaller than that calculated classically. This affects the shift of the subthreshold curves. The shift is larger at higher substrate impurity concentrations, and is especially pronounced at more than 10¹⁷ cm⁻³, which is the concentration used in recent MOS devices. The shift is as large as 0.18 V when the substrate impurity concentration is 8.5 × 10¹⁷ cm⁻³. Comparisons with measurement are also shown and it agrees well with quantum mechanical calculations. The inversion layer depth is compared, and a new efficient method is derived by transferring the quantum mechanical effect into the classical calculation. The results of this new method agree well with the quantum mechanical calculations and with the measurements.