QUANTITATIVE AND SENSITIVE PROFILING OF DOPANTS AND IMPURITIES IN COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTORS USING ...

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUE HAVING HIGH DEPTH AND LATERAL RESOLUTION, VERY HIGH SENSITIVITY AND SELECTIVITY, VERY HIGH (>10 X12) DYNAMIC RANGE, HIGH QUANTITATION ACCURACY, AND INDEPENDENCE FROM MATRIX EFFECTS ON SURFACES AND AT INTERFACES, IS CRITICAL IN MANY AREAS OF RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION, ESPECIALLY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF ELECTRONIC AND OPTOELECTRONIC MATERIALS. ALL COMMON PRESENT ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES SUCH AS SIMS, AES, RBS, DLTS, PHOTOLUMINESCENCE, ETC. HAVE SIGNIFICANT SHORTCOMINGS IN SENSITIVITY AND SOME IN RESOLUTION, QUANTITATION ACCURACY AND DYNAMIC RANGE. RESONANCE IONIZATION SPECTROSCOPY (RIS), BY UTILIZING STEPWISE EXCITATION AND IONIZATION OF ATOMS OF A PRESELECTED ELEMENT, ALLOWS VERY EFFICIENT DETECTION OF TRACE QUANTITIES OF ATOMS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE FROM THE MAJOR CONSTITUENTS OF THE SAMPLE. BY UTILIZING RIS ON THE NEUTRAL ATOMS REMOVED FROM THE SAMPLE DURING ANALYSIS, WITH FOR EXAMPLE, A SPUTTERING BEAM, IT IS POSSIBLE TO SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE SENSITIVITY, QUANTITATION, ACCURACY AND DYNAMIC RANGE. IN PHASE I WE WILL DEMONSTRATE THE CAPABILITY OF SIRIS (SPUTTER-INITIATED RIS) TO QUANTITATE WITH HIGH ACCURACY AND DEPTH RESOLUTION DOPANT AND IMPURITY CONCENTRATIONS IN SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES AT THE 10 X14 TO 10 X20 LEVEL. IN PHASE II, THE PROTOTYPE FOR A SIGNIFICANTLY ADVANCED COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTOR PROFILING INSTRUMENT WILL BE CONSTRUCTED. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS - A NEW ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE FOR SURFACE AND INTERFACE STRUCTURES OF MATERIALS, WITH HIGH QUANTITATION ACCURACY, INTERFACE-FREE ULTRA-TRACE SENSITIVITY, HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE, AND HIGH LATERAL AND DEPTH RESOLUTION, WILL LEAD TO IMPROVED ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRO-OPTICAL DEVICES. SIMILAR TECHNIQUES WILL FIND APPLICATION IN GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MATERIAL CHARACTERIZATION IN GENERAL, AND LEAD TO A SUBSTANTIAL MARKET FOR INSTRUMENT SALES.