Studies of point defect/dislocation loop interaction processes in silicon

Abstract Studies of the interactions between point defects introduced during semiconductor processing and dislocation loops are reviewed. The processing steps studied include oxidation, ion implantation and silicidation. By using doped marker layers it is shown that the interaction kinetics between the point defects and the dislocation loops is strongly diffusion limited. It is also shown that these dislocation loops can be used to quantitatively measure the flux of point defects introduced. This has provided a novel means of better understanding the process of defect injection as well as the effect these dislocations have on the excess point defect concentrations.