FORMATION OF THIN SILICON FILMS USING LOW-ENERGY OXYGEN ION-IMPLANTATION

SIMOX (separation by implanted oxygen) is an established technique to produce device worthy silicon-on-insulator structures. Current interest in thin film fully depleted CMOS devices in SIMOX material has placed emphasis on producing silicon overlayers of 100 nm thickness or less. Thin film SIMOX substrates have been prepared using halogen lamps, to preheat and provide background heating during oxygen ion implantation in the relatively low energy range 50-140 keV. The resulting structures have been studied by RBS, cross-sectional TEM and SIMS. This paper reports on the crystalline quality of the silicon overlayers and discusses the viability of low energy oxygen implantation to produce thin film SIMOX structures suitable for VLSI device fabrication.