Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
Device grade single crystal <100> silicon wafers have been implanted with 40keV oxygen ions over a dose range of 2×1017 to 8×1017/cm2 at a temperature of 5507±10°C. The specimens have been analyzed, both before and after high-temperature annealing at 1320°C for six hours, using SIMS, RBS, and TEM. During implantation a continuous buried SiO2 layer forms when the dose after which the buried SiO2 layer grows primarily toward the surface. After annealing samples implanted with the doses of both 2×1017 and 3×1017/cm2 it was observed that a defective SIMOX like structure was formed. Implanting with a dose of 4×1017/cm2 results in pit formation in the silicon overlayer. For the sample implanted with a higher dose of 5×1017/cm2, a non-continuous poly-crystalline silicon “overlayer” was formed. It would thus appear that when a single step implantation route is chosen, there is a dose (or layer thickness) limit for the production of a thin film SIMOX structure.