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Measurement of ultra-trace level metallic impurities in silicon wafers utilizing neutron activation analysis

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Abstract

The presence of ultra-trace level metallic impurities in silicon wafers has become increasingly important to the semiconductor community because of continually increasing performance demands being placed upon all types of devices. Silicon behaves as an infinitely dilute matrix for thermal neutron activation analysis (NAA) because the only target isotope that produces an (n,γ) reaction (30Si) has a very low capture cross section and natural abundance. NAA also provides excellent sensitivities for many of the elements of interest to the semiconductor community. Our NAA lab has developed, refined, and applied an analytical method for screening incoming batches of silicon wafers for metallic impurities before their use in device manufacturing. This paper will present a detailed description of the procedure that has evolved as well as some experimental data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY, 14650, USA

    C. C. Swanson, A. J. Filo & J. P. Lavine

Authors
  1. C. C. Swanson
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  2. A. J. Filo
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  3. J. P. Lavine
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Swanson, C.C., Filo, A.J. & Lavine, J.P. Measurement of ultra-trace level metallic impurities in silicon wafers utilizing neutron activation analysis. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 248, 69–74 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010621907553

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010621907553

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