SURFACE DOPANT CONCENTRATION MONITORING USING NONCONTACT SURFACE-CHARGE PROFILING

This study is concerned with variations of the concentration of active boron dopant in the near surface region of silicon wafers. Boron can be deactivated by pairing with hydrogen or metals, particularly Cu and Fe, all of which may originate from the surface polishing process. Th e temperature dependence of boron activation is studied using the surf ace charge profiling method. Based on the determined activation energy of 1.28 eV it was concluded that in the p-type wafers used in this st udy initially observed boron deactivation was dominated by its interac tion with hydrogen introduced during wafer polishing. (C) 1998 America n Institute of Physics.