Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Porous Silicon Gettering

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Porous Silicon

Abstract

Gettering, the process whereby unwanted impurities are moved to noncritical regions of devices, is achievable with porous silicon, as primarily a result of its very high surface areas. The mechanisms, different techniques, and classification of gettering in silicon, the methods of characterization, and the gettering performance of mesoporous silicon with regard transition metals are reviewed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 849.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 549.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bentzen A et al (2006) Gettering of transition metal impurities during phosphorous emitter diffusion in multicrystalline silicon solar cell processing. J Appl Phys 99:093509

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bilyalov B, Stalmans L, Beaucarne G, Loo R, Caymax M, Poortmans J, Nijs J (2001) Porous silicon as an intermediate layer for thin-film solar cell. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells 65:477–485

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Borisenko VE, Dorofeev AM (1983) Gettering of impurities by incoherent light annealed porous silicon. In: MRS symposium proceedings. Material Research Society, Pittsburg, pp 375–379

    Google Scholar 

  • Borisenko VE, Gorskaya LF, Dutov AG, Dorofeev AM (1984) Redistribution of gold in single-crystal silicon during brief annealing by incoherent light. Sov Phys Tech Phys 29(10):1184–1186

    Google Scholar 

  • Buonassisi T, Istratov AA, Marcus MA, Heuer M, Pickett MD, Lai B, Cai Z, Heald SM, Weber ER (2005) Local measurements of diffusion length and chemical character of metal clusters in multicrystalline silicon. Solid State Phenom 108–109:577–584

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chason E, Picraux ST, Poate JM, Borland JO, Current MI, de la Rubia TD, Eaglesham DJ, Holland OW, Law ME, Magee CW, Mayer JW, Melngailis J, Tasch AF (1997) B and N ion implantation into carbon nanotubes: insight from atomistic simulation. J Appl Phys 81:6513

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ciszek TF, NREL (1996) Redistribution of impurities during silicon solidification. In: Sixth workshop on the role of impurities and defects in silicon device processing, NREL, Snowmass

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuevas A, Stocks M, Armand S, Stuckings M, Blakers A, Ferrazza F (1997) High minority carrier lifetime in phosphorous-gettered multicrystalline silicon. Appl Phys Lett 70:1017

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Davis JR, Rohatgi A, Hopkins RH, Blais PD, Rai-Choudhury P, Mccormick JR, Mollenkopf HC (1980) Impurities in silicon solar cells. IEEE Trans Electron Devices 27(4):677–687

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dimassi W, Bouaicha M, Saadoun M, Bessais B, Ezzaouia H, Bennaceur R (2002) Porous silicon-based passivation and gettering in polycrystalline silicon solar cells. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res B 186:441–445

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Falster R, Fisher GR, Ferrero G (1991) Gettering thresholds for transition metals by oxygen-related defects in silicon. Appl Phys Lett 59:809

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Falster R, Laczik Z, Booker GR, Bhatti AR, Torok P (1992) Gettering and gettering stability of metals at oxide particles in silicon. Mater Res Soc Symp Proc 262:945

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Follstaedt DM, Myers SM, Petersen GA, Medernach JW (1996) Cavity formation and impurity gettering in He-implanted Si. J Electr Mater 25:157–164

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hampel J, Ehrenreich P, Wiehl N, Kratz JV, Reber S (2013) HCl gas gettering of low-cost silicon. Phys Status Solidi A, 210:767–770

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hilali M, Damiani B, Rohatgi A (2001) Lifetime enhancement during processing of porous silicon cells. In: 11th workshop on crystalline silicon solar cell materials and processes, Estes Park, Colorado, pp 19–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Honda K, Ohsawa A, Nakanishi T (1995) Behavior of Fe impurity during HCI oxidation. J Electrochem Soc (USA) 142:3486

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hull R (1999) Properties of crystalline silicon, chapter 15. In: Weber ER (ed) Gettering. INSPEC, London, University of Virginia, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Istratov AA, Buonassisi T, McDonald RJ, Smith AR et al (2003a) Metal content of multicrystalline silicon for solar cells and its impact on minority carrier diffusion length. J Appl Phys 94:6552–6559

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Istratov AA, Huber W, Weber ER (2003b) Modeling of competitive gettering of iron in silicon integrated circuit technology. J Electrochem Soc 150(4):G244–G252

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jaballah AB, Ezzaouia H (2007) Large enhancement of the hall mobility of the majority carrier in p-type Czochralski silicon after porous silicon damage: solutions for gettering efficiency improvement. Semicond Sci Technol 22:399–403

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Joshi SM, Gosele UM, Tan TY (1995) Improvement of minority carrier diffusion length in Si by Al gettering. J Appl Phys 77:3858

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kang JS, Schroder DK (1989) Gettering in silicon. J Appl Phys 65(8):2974

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Khedher N, Ben Jaballah A, Hassen M, Hajji M, Ezzaouia H, Bessais B, Selmi A, Bennaceur R (2004) Gettering by heat thermal processing: application in crystalline silicon solar cells. Mater Sci Semicond Process 7:439–442

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Khedher N, Hajji M, Hassen M, Ben Jaballah A, Ouertani B, Ezzaouia H, Bessais B, Selmi A, Bennaceur R (2005) Gettering impurities from crystalline silicon by phosphorus diffusion using porous silicon layer. Solar Energy Mater Solar Cells 87:605–611

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Khedher N, Jaballah AB, Bouaicha M, Ezzaouia H, Bennnaceur R (2009) Effect of external gettering with porous silicon on the electrical properties of metal-oxide silicon devices. Phys Procedia 2:983–989

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kuzma-Filipek I, Duerinckx F, Van Nieuwenhuysen K, Beaucarne G, Poortmans J, Mertens R (2009) A porous silicon intermediate reflector in thin film epitaxial silicon solar cells as a gettering site of impurities. Phys Status Solidi C 6:1745

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lamedica G, Balucani M, Ferrari A, Bondarenko V, Yakovtseva V, Dolgyi L (2002) Gettering technology based on porous silicon. Solid State Phenom 82–84:405–410

    Google Scholar 

  • Lei Z, Kang Y, Hu M, Qiu Y, Cen H (2004) Origin mechanism of residual stresses in porous silicon film. Proc SPIE 5641:116–123

    Google Scholar 

  • Loghmarti M, Stuck R, Muller JC, Sayah D, Siffert P (1993) Strong improvement of diffusion length by phosphorus and aluminum gettering. Appl Phys Lett (USA) 62:979

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lotfi D, Hatem E (2012) Phosphorus diffusion gettering process of multicrystalline silicon using a sacrificial porous silicon layer. Nanoscale Res Lett 7(1):424

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martinuzzi S (1996) Influence of defect-impurity interaction on silicon solar cells. In: Sixth workshop on the role of impurities and defects in silicon device processing, NREL, Snowmass

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinuzzi S, Porre O, Périchaud I, Pasquinelli M (1995) Aluminium gettering in silicon wafers. J Phys III France 5:1337

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McHugo SA, Keslmair H, Weber ER (1997) Gettering of metallic impurities in photovoltaic silicon. Appl Phys A, 64:127–137

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McHugo SA, Weber ER, Myers SM, Petersen GA (1998) Gettering of iron to implantation induced cavities and oxygen precipitates in silicon. J Electrochem Soc (USA) 145:1400

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Menna P, Tsuo YS, Al-Jassim MM, Asher SE, Matson R, Ciszek TF (1998) Purification of metallurgical-grade silicon by porous silicon etching. In: Proceedings of the 2nd European photovoltaic solar energy conference, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  • Morehead FF, Lever RF (1986) Enhanced “tail” diffusion of phosphorous and boron in silicon: self-interstitial phenomena. Appl Phys Lett 48:151

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Myers SM, Follstaedt DM, Bishop DM (1994) Binding of copper and nickel to cavities in silicon formed by helium ion implantation. Mater Res Soc Symp Proc 316:53

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers SM, Seibt M, Schroeter W (2000) Mechanisms of transition-metal gettering in silicon. J Appl Phys Col 88(7):3795–3819

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ogata Y, Yoshimi N, Yasuda R, Tsuboi T, Sakka T, Otsuki A (2001) Structural change in p-type porous silicon by thermal annealing. J Appl Phys 90(12):6487–6492

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ohsawa A, Honda K, Toyokura N (1984) Metal impurities near the SiO2-Si interface. J Electrochem Soc (USA) 131:2964

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Perevostchikov VA, Skoupov VD (2005) Gettering defects in semiconductors. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  • Petersen GA, Myers SM, Follstaedt DM (1997) Gettering of transition metals by cavities in silicon formed by helium ion implantation. Nucl Instr Meth Phys Res B 127/128:301

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Poponiak MR (1975) Method for gettering contaminants in monocrystalline silicon. US Patent 3,929,529, 30 Dec 1975

    Google Scholar 

  • Radhakrishnan HS, Ahn C, Van Hoeymissen J, Dross F, Cowern N, Van Nieuwenhuysen K, Gordon I, Mertens R, Poortmans J (2012) Gettering of transition metals by porous silicon in epitaxial silicon solar cells. Phys Status Solidi (a). doi:10.1002/pssa.201200232, 209:1866–1871

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rohatgi A, Davis JR, Hopkins RH, McMullin PG (1983) A study of grown-in impurities in silicon by deep-level transient spectroscopy. Solid State Electron 26:1039

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schindler R (1994) The art of living with defects in silicon: gettering and passivation. Solid State Phenom 37:343

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schroter W, Seibt M, Gilles D (1991) In: Cahn RW, Haasen P, Kramer EJ (eds) Materials science and technology; a comprehensive treatment, vol 4. VCH, New York, p 576

    Google Scholar 

  • Seibt M, Apel M, Hanke I, Schroter W (1996) Redistribution kinetics of metal impurities in multicrystalline silicon. In: Sixth workshop on the role of impurities and defects in silicon device processing, NREL, Snowmass

    Google Scholar 

  • Seibt M, Griess M, Istratov AA, Hedemann H, Sattler A, Schröter W (1998) Formation and properties of copper silicide precipitates in silicon. Phys Status Solidi A 166:171

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shieh SY, Evans JW (1993) Some observations of the effect of porous silicon on oxidation-induced stacking faults. J Electrochem Soc 140(4):1094–1096

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Skorupa W, Hatzopoulos N, Yankov RA, Danilin AB (1995) Proximity gettering of transition metals in separation by implanted oxygen structures. Appl Phys Lett 67(20):2992

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Smith AL, Wada K, Kimerling LC (2000) Modeling of transition metal redistribution to enable wafer design for gettering. J Electrochem Soc 147(3):1154–1160

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sopori BL, Jastrzebski L, Tan TY, Narayanan S (1994) Gettering effects in polycrystalline silicon. In: Proceedings of 12th EUPVSEC, Amsterdam, pp 1003–1006

    Google Scholar 

  • Sumino K (2003) Basic aspects of impurity gettering. Microelectr Eng 66:268–280

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sumino K, Nippon Steel Corporation (1996) Impurity segregation/precipitation/gettering at dislocations. In: Sixth workshop on the role of impurities and defects in silicon device processing, NREL, pp 5:17

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson RD, Tu KN (1982) Low temperature gettering of Cu, Ag, and Au across a wafer of Si by Al. Appl Phys Lett 41:440

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tsuo YS, Menna P, Pitts JR, Jantzen KR, Asher SE, Al-Jassim MM, Ciszek TF (1996) Porous silicon gettering. In: Proceedings of the 25th photovoltaic specialist conference, Washington, DC, p 461

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsuo YS, Pitts JR, Landry MD, Menna P, Bingham CE, Lewandowski A, Ciszek TF (1994) High-flux solar furnace processing of silicon solar cells. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells 2:1307–1310

    Google Scholar 

  • Vinod PN (2007) Porous silicon and aluminum co-gettering experiment in p-type multicrystalline silicon substrate. Sci Technol Adv Mater 8:231–236

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weber ER (1983) Transition metals in silicon. Appl Phys A 30:1–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong-Leung J, Ascheron CE, Petravic M, Elliman RG, Williams JS (1995) Gettering of copper to hydrogen-induced cavities in silicon. Appl Phys Lett 66(10):1231–1233

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, Heverlee, 3001, Belgium

    Izabela Kuzma-Filipek & Hariharsudan Sivaramakrishnan Radhakrishnan

Authors
  1. Izabela Kuzma-Filipek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hariharsudan Sivaramakrishnan Radhakrishnan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Izabela Kuzma-Filipek .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, Worcestershire, United Kingdom

    Leigh Canham

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Kuzma-Filipek, I., Radhakrishnan, H.S. (2018). Porous Silicon Gettering. In: Canham, L. (eds) Handbook of Porous Silicon. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71381-6_78

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation