Spectroscopic ellipsometry of oxygen-ion-implanted silicon-on-insulator annealed at different temperatures

Summary form only given. The effect of annealing temperature on the various layers in a SIMOX (separation by implantation of oxygen) wafer has been nondestructively characterized using spectroscopic ellipsometry. Four different samples have been probed, which were all implanted under similar conditions but annealed at temperatures of 1150°C, 1200°C, 1250°C, and 1300°C. A modeling scheme has been developed to include the effect of the transition regions between the top Si and the buried oxide increases with anneal temperature, as expected, since more oxygen is pumped from Si and forms SiO₂. The interlayer between the top Si and the buried oxide becomes very sharp, indicating that the oxide precipitates present at the boundary merge with the buried oxide, and thus the top Si layer is effectively repaired for subsequent device fabrication. The lower transition region between the buried oxide and the substrate is also reduced by high temperature anneal