Formation of excess donors during high-dose ⁷⁴Ge⁺ion implantation

Recently observations that high-dose Ge implantations into Si substrates caused the n-type carrier concentration to increase were attributed to residual structural defects after activation annealing [7,12]. However, co-implantation of an n-type impurity is another possibility. The origin of this excess donor concentration has been studied in this work. The possibilities of residual defects versus implantation of impurities have been investigated using two different implanters and materials analysis. Comparison of data from different implanters showed that the concentration of excess donors was sensitive to the implanter configuration. Furthermore, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Rutherford backscattering channeling (RBS-C), and spreading resistance profiling (SRP) data showed that the excess donor effect was related to impurities rather than residual defects. Secondary-ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and SRP measurements confirmed that impurities such as ⁷⁵As ions were present after implants. This impurity easily explains the excess donor concentration when ⁷⁴Ge implants are performed into silicon wafers doped with phosphorus.