MECHANISM OF ENHANCED DIFFUSION OF ALUMINUM IN 6H-SiC IN THE
PROCESS OF HIGH-TEMPERATURE ION IMPLANTATION
Igor 0. USOV *, A.A. SUVOROVA*, V.V. SOKOLOV, Y.A. KUDRYAVTSEV* and
A.V. SUVOROV**
loffe Physical Technical Institute RAS, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia
Cree Research Inc., Durham, NC 27713, USA
Abstract
The diffusion of Al in 6H-SiC during high-temperature ion implantation was studied using
secondary ion mass spectrometry. A 6H-SiC wafer was implanted with 50 keV Al ions to a dose
of 1.4E16 cm
2
in the high temperature range 1300°- 1800TC and at room temperature. There are
two diffusion regions that can be identified in the Al profiles. At high Al concentrations the
gettering related peak and profile broadening are observed. At low Al concentrations, the profiles
have a sharp kink and deep penetrating diffusion tails. In the first region, the diffusion coefficient
is temperature independent, while in the second it exponentially increases as a function of
temperature. The Al redistribution can be explained with the substitutional-interstitial diffusion
mechanism.
Introduction
Silicon carbide is one of the most important semiconductors for electronic and optoelectronic
device applications. Diffusion of Al implanted into SiC has been studied by several investigators
[1-5]. In the previous studies, implants were mostly performed either at room temperature (RT)
or at temperatures lower than 850TC. It was established that the 800TC implanted SiC has a
broader Al distribution as compared with the RT implanted sample [1]. Only a slight Al in-
diffusion of the RT implantation was observed for the annealing temperature up to 1800'C [2,3].
However, in our previous paper we have shown the anomalously high diffusion of Al implanted at
1800TC [5]. Experimental data on Al diffusion in SiC are few and the diffusion mechanism has
not been well understood. In this work the implant temperature dependence of the enhanced Al
difflusion is investigated.
Experiment
In this study we have used 3 litm thick n-type Si-faced 6H-SiC epitaxial layers with a carrier
concentration of 5.5E 17 cm
3
grown on n-type 6H-SiC substrates from Cree Research Inc. Ion
implantation was done with 50 keV Al' ions to a dose of 1.4E16 cm
2
and ion current density of
8.5 ptA/cm
2
(implantation time about 320 sec). The implants were performed at RT and at high
temperatures (HT) ranging from 1300TC to 1800TC using a holder which could be resistevely
heated. During implantation the samples were tilted 7' off the normal to minimize channeling.
The secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) profiles of Al were determined using a CAMIECA
IMS-4F spectrometer.
Results and Discussion
The concentration profiles of Al implanted at different temperatures are shown in Figure 1 and
Figure 2. The Al profile of the RT implanted sample can be fit to a Gaussian distribution with a
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Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 504 © 1998 Materials Research Society