The use of tertiarybutylarsine (TBA) and tertiarybutylphosphine (TBP) as liquid reagents for ion implantation

Abstract

The safety and environmental concerns regarding the widespread use of phosphine and arsine gas in the semiconductor industry have given rise to the use of alternative, less hazardous replacement substances, such as tertiarybutylphosphine (TBP) and tertiarybutylarsine (TBA). TBP and TBA are less hazardous than the hydride gases under sudden release scenarios because they are (1) liquids, and (2) have a lower acute toxicity than the gases. For applications in ion implantation, the use of TBP and TBA could potentially reduce the costly downtime resulting from the heating and cooling cycles of the solid source vaporizers. In comparison with the gases, the use of liquids can extend the period of implanter operation before chemical sources need replacement. In this paper, data is presented which demonstrates the performance of these materials in a production environment, with the discussion focusing on issues such as source lifetime, implanter maintainability and overall performance.