Critical microstructure for ion-implantation gettering effects in silicon

The nature of residual ion-implantation damage responsible for gettering deleterious impurities from active semiconductor device regions in Si has been studied. A propensity for dislocations of the type b=1/2 〈110〉 to gather metallic contaminant (e.g., Cu), as compared to Frank partials b=1/3 〈111〉, is established. Transmission electron microscopy and pulsed leakage measurements are used to demonstrate that the density of 1/2 〈110〉 dislocations introduced by Xe implantation greatly influences gettering efficiency.