FORMATION OF BURIED OXIDE IN SILICON USING SEPARATION BY PLASMA IMPLANTATION OF OXYGEN

Plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) is used to fabricate buried oxide layers in silicon. This ''separation by plasma implantation of oxygen'' (SPIMOX) technique can achieve a nominal oxygen atom dose of 2x10(17) cm(-2) in implantation time of about 3 min. SPIMOX in thus presented as a practical high-throughput process for manufacturing silicon-on-insulator. In the SPIMOX samples prepared, three distinct modes of buried oxide microstructure formation are identified and related to the as-implanted oxygen profiles. A first-order model based on oxygen transport and oxide precipitation explains the formation mechanisms of these three types of SPIMOX layers. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.