Arsenic Precipitation in Heavily Arsenic-Doped Czochralski Silicon

Heavily arsenic-doped Czochralski (HAs-CZ) silicon is an important substrate material for manufacturing power electronic devices. The arsenic impurities may be in a supersaturated status in a certain temperature range during the HAs-CZ silicon crystal growth or the device fabrication. Then, whether and how the arsenic impurities can precipitate in HAs-CZ silicon is an intriguing and practically significant issue that has never been addressed. Herein, it is first found that arsenic precipitation can occur in HAs-CZ silicon when subjected to appropriately prolonged anneals at 550-950 degrees C. The resulting second-phase precipitates are confirmed to be of orthorhombic SiAs phase, with the lattice parameters of a = 7.12 angstrom, b = 9.11 angstrom, and c = 9.00 angstrom, through systematic transmission electron microscopy characterizations. Moreover, it is discovered that the presence of vacancies/interstitial silicon atoms in HAs-CZ silicon promotes/inhibits arsenic precipitation.

Automated summary

Heavily arsenic-doped Czochralski silicon is an important material for manufacturing power electronic devices. This study discovers that arsenic can precipitate in the silicon under prolonged anneals at specific temperatures, and the presence of vacancies/interstitial silicon atoms can influence the precipitation.