Ideal oxygen precipitating silicon wafers with nitrogen/carbon stabilized oxygen precipitate nucleation centers and process for making the same

Abstract

A silicon wafer having a controlled oxygen precipitation property so as to result in a clean zone extending inwardly from the front surface and oxygen deposits in the body of the wafer sufficient for intrinsic purpose of suction. Specifically, prior to the formation of oxygen precipitates, the wafer body includes dopant-stabilized oxygen precipitate nucleation centers. The dopant is selected from nitrogen and carbon and is present in a concentration sufficient to render the oxygen precipitate nucleation centers resistant to heat treatment such as an epitaxial deposition process while maintaining the ability to dissolve any growing nucleation centers.

Description

technical field

[0001] The present invention generally relates to the preparation of substrates of semiconductor material, particularly silicon wafers, for use in the manufacture of electronic components. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for processing silicon wafers that enables the wafers to develop a desired non-uniform depth profile of oxygen precipitates during the thermal treatment cycle of essentially any electronic device manufacturing process . Background technique

[0002] Single crystal silicon, the starting material for most methods of manufacturing semiconductor electronic components, is usually produced by the so-called Czochralski method, in which a single crystal seed crystal is immersed in molten silicon and then grown by slow pulling. Because the molten silicon is contained in a quartz crucible, it is contaminated with various impurities, mainly oxygen. At the temperature of the silicon melt, oxygen enters the crystal lattice u...

Images