A New Model of Tail Diffusion of Phosphorus and Boron in Silicon

Abstract

ABSTRACTIt is well known that high surface concentration phosphorus diffusion leads to deeply penetrating “tails” in its concentration profile. At 700 °C the tail diffusivity exceeds that of low concentration phosphorus by a factor of a thousand. Less spectacular, but very significant tailing also affects tioron, making the conventional models contained in commonly available process simulation programs quite inaccurate for boron diffusions with high surface concentrations. We show that the observed tailing can be accounted for by a model whose central assumption is the local equality of dopant and oppositely directed defect fluxes. As predicted by the model, the effect is greatest for normal processing at low temperatures for high surface concentrations. It is minimal for the high temperatures of rapid thermal annealing and unrelated to transient effects.