Intentional and unintentional channeling during implantation of 51V ions into 4H-SiC

Abstract

Ion implantation is a commonly used process step in 4H-SiC device manufacturing to implement precise concentrations of dopant atoms in selected areas and depths. This paper reports on vanadium (V) implantation into 4H-SiC(0001) and how the crystal lattice, with preferential directions, channels, for the ions, will influence the final dopant distribution. Concentration versus depth profiles of V-ions, intentionally and unintentionally channelled, has been recorded by secondary ion mass spectrometry. Ion implantations have been performed between 50 and 300 keV at various impact angles and fluence at room temperature as well as at elevated temperatures. Before ion implantation, the samples were aligned utilizing the blocking pattern of 100 keV backscattered protons. In addition to the aligned implantations, our standard beam line for ion implantation has been used for implantations in a 'random' direction using the wafer miscut angle of 4°. The electronic stopping has been determined from these 'random' cases and the values have been used in 3D simulations to predict preferential crystallographic directions using SIIMPL, a Monte Carlo simulation code based on the binary collision approximation. The results show that, independent of the used impact angle there is always a probability that the vanadium ions will be steered into the [000-1] and the family of 〈11-2-3〉 crystal directions and therefore penetrate deep into the sample, resulting in unwanted 'spikes'. If the implantation is performed at elevated temperatures, a larger degree of dechanneling is present due to increased thermal vibrations and the penetration depth of vanadium is slightly reduced.