Study on void reduction in direct wafer bonding using Al2O3/HfO2 bonding interface for high-performance Si high-k MOS optical modulators

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We have investigated the direct wafer bonding (DWB) method with a thin bonding dielectric interface to fabricate Si high-k MOS optical modulators with a thin equivalent oxide thickness (EOT). To suppress void generation on the bonded wafer during high-temperature annealing, we examined the high-k dielectric bonding interfacial layers, such as Al2O3 and HfO2. We found that the Al2O3/HfO2 bilayer enables void-less wafer bonding in conjunction with pre-bonding annealing at 700 °C. By using the 0.5-nm Al2O3/2.0-nm HfO2 bonding interface, the density of voids is reduced by three orders of magnitude as compared with that in the case of using the Al2O3 bonding interface. We achieved a density of voids of approximately 2 × 10−3 cm−2 even when the bonded wafer is annealed at 700 °C. By thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS), we found that degassing from the bonding interface is successfully suppressed by the introduction of the HfO2 layer and the pre-bonding annealing at 700 °C, which are considered to suppress void generation. Wafer bonding with thin Al2O3/HfO2 high-k bonding interface is promising for Si high-k MOS optical modulators.