Improvement of the breakdown field of SIMOX buried oxide layers

Abstract

A high-quality SIMOX wafer with an extremely low dislocation density, less than 300 cm/sup -2/ has been formed at low doses of between 3.0 x 10/sup 17/ and 5.0 x 10/sup 17/ cm/sup -2/. This wafer should open the way to practical fabrication of SIMOX ULSIs. The buried oxide layer of this wafer, however, has a relatively low breakdown electric field strength of around 4 MV/cm. The authors clarify the cause of this low breakdown field and propose a method for improving it.<>