Effect of oxidizing ambient on the generation of microdefects in low-dose SIMOX wafers

Summary form only given. One of the great advantages of low-dose SIMOX wafers over the conventional high-dose SIMOX wafers is a very low density of threading dislocations formed in the top Si layer. These dislocations are often called through-thickness defects (TTD). However, TTDs are not the only lattice defects formed in SIMOX wafers. In high-dose SIMOX, in addition to TTDs, several kinds of stacking fault complexes (SFC) have been observed. The formation of such microdefects in low-dose SIMOX wafers has not been systematically analyzed yet. In this work the effect of the oxidizing ambient of the post-implantation high-temperature thermal treatment on the defect generation in the top Si layer of low-dose SIMOX wafers has been studied.