Effect of carbon, oxygen, and intrinsic defects on hydrogen-related donor concentration in proton irradiated n-type silicon

We investigated the effect of the concentration of carbon, oxygen, and irradiation-induced intrinsic defects on hydrogen-related donor (HD) concentration. Several n-type silicon wafers having different carbon and oxygen concentrations were irradiated with 2 MeV protons, subsequently annealed at 300–400 °C, and analyzed by spreading resistance profiling. The HD concentration had no correlation with carbon and oxygen concentration. Additionally, the HD concentration showed a strong increasing linear dependence with proton-irradiation dose at 350 and 400 °C and a square root dependence at 300 °C. In the decay process of HD concentration at 400 °C, fast- and slow-decay components were observed regardless of wafer type. Our results show that the HD formation is based on the interactive process of irradiation-induced intrinsic defects and hydrogen, rather than hydrogen-catalyzed thermal double donor formation. Magnetic-field-applied Czochralski (m:Cz) wafers with 300 mm diameter, which are critical for the production scaling of power devices, have a relatively higher oxygen concentration than conventional floating-zone wafers. Our results further suggest that controlling the intrinsic defect formation, rather than oxygen impurity concentration, is more important in realizing designed doping profiles with high accuracy and reproducibility for next-generation power devices using large-diameter m:Cz wafers as a standard starting material.