New insights on LeTID/BO-LID in p-type mono-crystalline silicon

Abstract

In this work, light-induced degradation (LID) experiments were performed on p-type boron-doped Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si) wafers under different conditions, aiming to separately characterize boron-oxygen related LID (BO-LID) and “light and elevated temperature-induced degradation” (LeTID). We found that the regeneration rate of BO-LID, as well as the extent and kinetics of LeTID, were strongly influenced by peak firing temperature. These dependences can be explained by the variation of hydrogen concentration, which was modulated by peak firing temperature. Furthermore, we found that extending the duration of dark annealing pre-treatment decelerates the subsequent regeneration of BO defects. This result revealed that, under dark annealing, the evolution of LeTID was accompanied by a notable decrease in the mobile hydrogen concentration. Supported by this phenomenon, a hydrogen-related model based on reversible reaction is proposed to describe the LeTID behavior in crystalline silicon.