Dislocation nucleation study in p/p(+) silicon

Different edge treatments were used during the processing of 150 mm diamete r highly boron-doped silicon substrate wafers to create a variation of crys tallographic damage around the wafer edges. We studied the wafer edge as mi sfit dislocation generation sites in epitaxial p/p(+) silicon wafers. These strain-relaxing defects nucleate heterogeneously at the lattice-mismatched interface. We examined the effect of a variation of wafer edge treatments on misfit dislocation formation in p/p(+) silicon test wafers. We determine d that a lower microroughness of the wafer edge results in a decrease in th e misfit dislocation density and length. We were able to show that a carefu l combination of edge treatments including damage removal steps helps signi ficantly reduce misfit dislocations in strained layer epitaxy. (C) 2001 The Electrochemical Society.