Dislocation and stacking fault interactions in silicon

Abstract

The influence of dislocations generated by thermal stress during epitaxial processing upon other dislocations and upon epitaxial stacking fault densities and oxidation induced stacking fault densities is examined. High dislocation densities were observed at the intersection of thermally induced slip planes. Like dislocation densities, epitaxial stacking fault densities increased at slip plane intersections. Thermally induced dislocations influenced the arrangement of dislocation loops generated by lattice strain from heavy doping. Oxidation induced stacking faults were found to nucleate at areas of heavy slip, parallel to the slip lines.