A comparison of oxidation induced stress and defectivity in SIMOX and bonded SOI wafers

Abstract

We have shown that the trench liner oxidation step in Mesa or shallow trench isolation can affect stress in active Si areas. Significant differences in the response to that stress were observed between SIMOX and Bonded SOI wafers. Our results indicate that a threshold for stress relaxation exists in trench-isolated structures which is much larger for Bonded SOI wafers than for SIMOX with T/sub BOX/=3700 /spl Aring/.