(001) silicon surfacial grain boundaries obtained by direct wafer bonding process: accurate control of the structure before bonding

Abstract

Ultra-thin (001) silicon films bonded onto (001) silicon wafers, which form ‘surfacial grain boundaries’, are analysed by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The aim of this study is to find a way of controlling precisely, before direct wafer bonding, the structure of the Si/Si (001) interface. Two kinds of dislocation networks are found at the bonded interface. A square array of screw dislocations accommodates the twist between the two crystals, whereas a linear network of mixed dislocations accommodates the tilt resulting from the residual vicinality of the initial surfaces. A theoretical study shows that knowing and choosing before bonding the characteristics of these interfacial dislocations depend on the control of the ‘twist’ angle during the hydrophobic molecular bonding process. Recently, a new bonding method allows us to obtain an accuracy of ± 0.005° for the ‘twist’ angle from patterned grooves without any crystallographic measurement. The precision of this technique is compared with three different measurement of the disorientation between the two grains taken after bonding. The first one is deduced from the periodicity of the dislocation networks located at the interface. The second one is calculated from large angle convergent beam electron diffraction patterns. The last one is obtained by synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The possibility of choosing precisely the characteristics of the Si (001) ‘surfacial grain boundaries’ before direct wafer bonding process is then discussed in light of an experimental study.