Electrical and Structural Properties of Oxygen-Precipitation Induced Extended Defects in Silicon

Although the oxygen precipitation process has been extensively studied during the last two decades, there still exists controversy concerning the electrical activity of the precipitates and the associated extended defect complexes. Therefore in the present study a unique combination of complementary characterization techniques is used to gain a better insight into the structural and electrical properties of oxygen-precipitation induced extended defects. TEM and LST are used for the structural analyses, while DLTS, PL, lifetime measurements, EBIC analyses and low frequency noise spectroscopy are used for the electrical characterization. The experimental observations are compared with relevant data available in the literature. Strong evidence is given that in clean processed wafers, the dominant recombination activity is associated with the dislocations, rather than with the precipitates themselves.