Analysis of Cu traces in Si using Transient Ion Drift combined with Rapid Thermal Annealing.

Copper trace analysis using Transient Ion Drift (TID) combined with a Rapid Thermal Annealing (RTA) process is investigated. A double pulse method is implemented to allow unambiguous identification of the copper-induced capacitance signal. Use of a mercury probe as sensing Schottky barrier enhances the flexibility of the method and allows mapping of the contaminant. The method is evaluated on quantitatively contaminated silicon wafers and compared to Total X-ray fluorescence (TXRF). It is shown that in Czochralski grown material, the RTA is sufficient to dissolve most copper atoms into interstitial sites independently of their initial configuration. As a result, both, the surface and bulk contamination can be monitored by RTA/TID with a bulk detection limit close to 1011cm−3. In Float Zone material mapping of the quenched interstitial copper revealed the existence of defect reactions involving presumably vacancy clusters.