Trapping and diffusion behaviour of hydrogen simulated with TCAD in projection range of carbon‐cluster implanted silicon epitaxial wafers for CMOS image sensors

Abstract

The trapping and diffusion behaviour of hydrogen in projection range of carbon-cluster was investigated by using a technology computer aided design (TCAD) simulation for high performance complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors. The hydrogen behaviour seemingly contributes to passivating the interface state density of the isolation region and process-induced defects during the CMOS image sensor fabrication process. This hydrogen behaviour was simulated by a TCAD simulation assuming a reaction model in which the cluster of carbon and silicon self-interstitial (carbon-interstitial cluster) binds to hydrogen. We found that the hydrogen profiles of TCAD agreed with the secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) results after epitaxial growth and high-temperature heat-treatment, thus suggesting that the hydrogen in the projection range of the carbon cluster forms a binding state with the carbon-interstitial cluster. In addition, hydrogen gradually diffused out from the projection range of the carbon-cluster after high-temperature heat-treatment. Therefore, the hydrogen behaviour in projection range of the carbon-cluster is considered to contribute to the CMOS image sensor fabrication process to achieve high electrical performance.