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

Plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) is used to fabricate buried o xide layers in silicon. This ''separation by plasma implantation of ox ygen'' (SPIMOX) technique can achieve a nominal oxygen atom dose of 2x 10(17) cm(-2) in implantation time of about 3 min. SPIMOX in thus pres ented 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 t he as-implanted oxygen profiles. A first-order model based on oxygen t ransport and oxide precipitation explains the formation mechanisms of these three types of SPIMOX layers. (C) 1995 American Institute of Phy sics.