Application of three-dimensional dislocation dynamics simulation to the STI semiconductor structure

As the size of semiconductor devices continues to shrink, the control of dislocation nucleation is becoming a severe problem due to high accumulated stress. In this paper, we propose a method to infer the initiation points and slip systems of nucleated dislocations through a combination of TEM observation and dislocation dynamics simulation based on FEM calculation. In order to reproduce the behaviors of dislocations on the nanometer scale, we adopted the core splitting concept first proposed by Brown and employed by Schwarz. We applied our method to a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure. The initiation points and slip systems of four kinds of nucleated dislocations can be detected. It is found that the line tension of the dislocation strongly affects the loop’s final shape, unlike the macroscopic dislocations observed in wafer slip.