Dose-energy match for the formation of high-integrity buried oxide layers in low-dose separation-by-implantation-of-oxygen materials

High-quality low-dose separation-by-implantation-of-oxygen (SIMOX) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers have been fabricated from a series of good matches of dose-energy combinations. The results reveal that a wafer fabricated at an optimum dose-energy match has a superior SOI layer with a low threading dislocation density, a high-integrity buried oxide (BOX) layer with a minimal detectable silicon island density and a low pinhole density. This work introduces an approach to flexibly control the thickness of both SOI and BOX layers, allowing the fabrication of ultrathin SIMOX wafers with ultrathin SOI and BOX layers, and improving the throughput capacity by selecting good dose-energy matches. A possible mechanism is discussed.(C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.