Quantitative copper measurement in oxidized p-type silicon wafers using microwave photoconductivity decay
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Electrical Engineering |
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date
2005
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
3
Series
Applied Physics Letters, Volume 87, Issue 3
Abstract
We propose a method to measure trace copper contamination in p-type silicon using the microwave photoconductivity decay (μ-PCD) technique. The method is based on the precipitation of interstitial copper, activated by high-intensity light, which results in enhanced minority carrier recombination activity. We show that there is a quantitative correlation between the enhanced recombination rate and the Cu concentration by comparing μ-PCD measurements with transient ion drift and total reflection x-ray fluorescence measurements. The results indicate that the method is capable of measuring Cu concentrations down to 10exp10cm−3. There are no limitations to wafer storage time if corona charge is used on the oxidized wafer surfaces as the charge prevents copper outdiffusion. We briefly discuss the role of oxide precipitates both in the copperprecipitation and in the charge carrier recombination processes.Description
Keywords
copper contamination, silicon, wafers, measuring method, p-type silicon, microwave photoconductivity decay, copper concentration, precipitation, oxide precipitates
Citation
Väinölä, Hele & Saarnilehto, Eero & Yli-Koski, Marko & Haarahiltunen, Antti & Sinkkonen, Juha & Berenyi, G. & Pavelka, T. 2005. Quantitative copper measurement in oxidized p-type silicon wafers using microwave photoconductivity decay. Applied Physics Letters. Volume 87, Issue 3. 0003-6951 (printed). DOI: 10.1063/1.1999008
