Impact of Carbon on the Deactivation Behaviors of Boron and Phosphorus in Preamorphized Silicon

Silicon wafers were preamorphized to investigate the impact of carbon on the deactivation behaviors of boron and phosphorus. The boron deactivation caused by carbon was observed with solid phase epitaxial regrowth (SPER) at the beginning of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at 600 °C. However, carbon reduced further boron deactivation when interstitials were released from end-of-range (EOR) defects during subsequent furnace annealing (FA) at 800 °C. Phosphorus deactivation was enhanced by carbon during RTA at 600 °C. Such deactivation was enlarged with further FA at 800 and 850 °C. This indicates that the reaction between carbon and phosphorus primarily occurred in crystalline silicon and the reaction was not associated with excess interstitials.