The Effects of Drive-In Process Parameters on the Residual Stress Profile of the Boron-Doped Silicon Layer
The paper represents the effects of the drive-in process parameters on the residual stress profile of the p+ silicon film quantitatively. Since the residual stress profile is not uniform along the direction normal to the surface, the residual stress is assumed to be a polynomial function of the depth. All of the coefficients of the polynomial are determined from the deflections of cantilevers and the displacement of a rotating beam structure, which are measured with a surface profiler meter and a microscope. As the drive-in temperature or the drive-in time increases, the boron concentration decreases and the magnitude of the average residual tensile stress decreases. Also, near the surface of the p+ film the residual tensile stress is transformed into the residual compressive stress and its magnitude increases. The correlation coefficients between the residual stress profiles and the simulated boron concentration are calculated. As the drive-in time and temperature increase, all correlation coefficients become close to 1, and the boron concentration profiles after the drive-in process are similar to the stress profiles. Also, the lattice contractions of test wafers are measured by HRXRD (High Resolution X-Ray Diffractometry).