Hydrogen ion implantation mechanism in GaAs-on-insulator wafer formation by ion-cut process

Abstract

The results of the basic study on depth distribution of hydrogen atoms and corresponding damage profiles produced by 40 keV hydrogen ion implantation in (100) GaAs are reported. Depth distribution of hydrogen was measured by SIMS, and the lattice disorder in the samples was studied by RBS/channeling analysis. The influence of the ion fluence and the implantation temperature, and subsequent annealing on blistering and/or flaking was studied, and the optimum conditions for achieving blistering/splitting only after post‐implantation annealing were determined. In addition, the microscopic evolution in the damaged layer was also studied by XTEM analysis. Our results suggest that the ion‐cut process is sensitive to both the implant temperature and the fluence. At implant temperatures below 100□, hydrogen is unable to form into the defect structure which is responsible for blistering, and if the implant temperature is too high, the platelets are not able to evolve and blistering is less prolific. It was found that the optimum implant temperature window lie in 120∼150°C, which is markedly lower than the previously reported implant temperature window probably due to the inaccuracy in temperature measurement in other laboratories. Optimum post‐implantation annealing temperature was less than 300°C, and low temperature splitting is of importance for layer transfer between dissimilar materials with very different thermal expansion coefficients as well as for processed wafers containing temperature‐sensitive devices.