Low energy boron implantation profiles in silicon from junction depth measurements

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Abstract
Some methods have been recently developed to investigate the distribution of implanted ions in semiconductors, especially into silicon. Generally, these techniques are not valid for boron due to the absence of convenient radioactive isotopes, or to a too small sensitivity when the lower part of the distribution is of interest. This corresponds to our problem, since boron implanted nuclear particle detectors prepared with high resistivity material (up to 50,000 ω.cm) are needed. The properties of these P-N junctions depend in a certain amount on the impurity distribution existing several orders of magnitude below the top of the distribution. Therefore, only the junction location method can be employed. In this method a series of N-type silicon samples, differing each from the other by an increase in resistivity are implanted with boron. The depth of the P-N junction corresponds to the point of the profile where the concentration NA is equal to that of the substrate ND (i.e. this latter being well known from the resistivity of the starting material). If the location of the junction can be measured, the profile can then be constructed point by point. The junction location is visualized generally by copper staining. Roosild,(1) Kleinfelder,(2) Fairfield(3) and D. E. Davies(4) have used this procedure for boron implantations at energies higher than 50 keV. There is a problem due to the small penetration of the boron ion, and, for high resistivity materials, it is difficult to know the true limits of the zones stained with copper. In our problem, when heavy particle detectors are desired, it is necessary to implant at lower energies than those indicated previously (< 20 keV). We have developed a new technique derived from the junction depth method, which is useful even at very low implant energy (≈ 10 keV). It consists in measuring the energy loss by 100 keV protons when crossing the entrance window of the P-N junctions used as detectors. In the first part of this paper the method is described and the possible errors are analyzed and evaluated. In the second part, the distribution of 15 keV boron ions implanted under several experimental conditions is studied. Emphasis is given to the defects resulting from the silicon bombardment.

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