Electrical Properties of Copper Segregates in Silicon P-N Junctions

The electrical properties of segregated copper are greatly influenced by the structure of the lattice disorder to which the impurity precipitates. Two crystal defects, the sessile fault and the lattice void, act as precipitation sites for the copper impurities discussed in this work. Copper which precipitates at a small sessile fault will acquire a platelet distribution within the limits of the newly formed disorder. The copper platelet will cause a P‐N junction to exhibit a soft reverse characteristic if the platelet is in the depletion region of the junction. Copper which precipitates at a lattice void will redistribute to form loosely packed {110} arrays. These {110} copper segregates contribute a constant multiplier to a copper‐free P‐N junction's electrical I ‐; V trace.