Determination of the Nitrogen Content of as-Implanted and Annealed SIMOX Substrates

SIMOX substrate material from two sources, both as-implanted and annealed, have been analysed by Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) to determine the nitrogen concentration in the silicon overlayer. A variety of different analytical conditions were used on two different SIMS instruments to reduce the possibility of artefacts arising from the difficulties of analysing nitrogen in these materials. The nitrogen contaminant level was found to be consistently below 5 x 1017 nitrogen atoms cm-3, for all the material analysed.