Process for making silicon wafers with stabilized oxygen precipitate nucleation centers

• Main Authors: MULE'STAGNO LUCIANO, LIBBERT JEFFREY L, BANAN MOHSEN, KULKARNI MILIND, PHILLIPS RICHARD J, BRUNKHORST STEPHEN J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 03.03.2005
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS

A process for imparting controlled oxygen precipitation behavior to a single crystal silicon wafer. Specifically, prior to formation of the oxygen precipitates, the wafer bulk comprises dopant stabilized oxygen precipitate nucleation centers. The dopant is selected from a group consisting of nitrogen and carbon, and the concentration of the dopant is sufficient to allow the oxygen precipitate nucleation centers to withstand thermal processing, such as an epitaxial deposition process, while maintaining the ability to dissolve any grown-in nucleation centers.