Effect of intrinsic point defects on copper precipitation in large-diameter Czochralski silicon

Effect of intrinsic point defects on copper precipitation in large-diameter Czochralski silicon annealed at 1100 degreesC under air cooling was studied by means of scanning infrared microscopy (SIRM), optical microscopy (OM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The SIRM images showed that, in the A-defect zone of the Cu-contaminated silicon wafers, the copper-precipitate colonies with larger size were observed, while in the D-defect zone almost no copper precipitates could be observed. However, the OM results revealed that the density of etching pits in the D-defect zone was higher than that in the A-defect zone, indicating that the copper precipitates with smaller size and higher density formed in the D-defect zone. The TEM investigation showed that the size of copper precipitate colonies in the A-defect zone was about 300 nm, while that in the D-defect zone was about 50 nm. It is considered that as-grown vacancies in the D-defect zone enhanced the nucleation of copper precipitates but hindered their growth, whereas the role of as-grown interstitial silicon on copper precipitation was inverse. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.