X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization methods for sigma=3 twin defects in cubic semiconductor (100) wafers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9835570-B2
Application number	US-201414484517-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 12, 2014
Priority date	Sep 13, 2013
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

An X-ray defraction (XRD) characterization method for sigma=3 twin defects in cubic semiconductor (100) wafers includes a concentration measurement method and a wafer mapping method for any cubic tetrahedral semiconductor wafers including GaAs (100) wafers and Si (100) wafers. The methods use the cubic semiconductor's (004) pole figure in order to detect sigma=3/{111} twin defects. The XRD methods are applicable to any (100) wafers of tetrahedral cubic semiconductors in the diamond structure (Si, Ge, C) and cubic zinc-blend structure (InP, InGaAs, CdTe, ZnSe, and so on) with various growth methods such as Liquid Encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) growth, Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE), Organometallic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (OMVPE), Czochralski growth and Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) growth.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of characterizing sigma=3 twin defects on {111} planes of semiconductor materials, the method comprising:
utilizing an X-ray diffraction (XRD) process to measure a magnitude of a (004) intensity peak of a semiconductor material specimen;
utilizing the X-ray diffraction (XRD) process to measure a magnitude of at least one twin defect intensity peak of the semiconductor material specimen; and
determining a quality factor ratio by dividing the magnitude of the at least one of the twin defect intensity peak by the magnitude of the (004) intensity peak.

2. The method of claim 1 , further including:
measuring the magnitudes of a plurality of twin defect intensity peaks of the semiconductor material specimen;
determining an average twin defect intensity peak by dividing a sum of the magnitudes of the plurality of twin defect intensity peaks by the number of twin defect intensity peaks; and
determining a quality factor ratio by dividing the average twin defect intensity peak by the magnitude of the (004) intensity peak.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the at least one twin defect intensity peak of the semiconductor material specimen includes eight discrete twin defect intensity peaks at a tilt angle of about 48°.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein:
determining the quality factor ratio includes determining an average twin defect intensity peak by dividing a sum of the magnitudes of the eight discrete twin defect intensity peaks by eight.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the at least one twin defect intensity peak of the semiconductor material specimen includes four discrete twin defect intensity peaks at a tilt angle of about 78.5°.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein:
determining the quality factor ratio includes determining an average twin defect intensity peak by dividing a sum of the magnitudes of the four discrete twin defect intensity peaks by four.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
utilizing the X-ray diffraction (XRD) process to measure a magnitude of at least one twin defect intensity peak of the semiconductor material specimen that includes measuring a plurality of twin defect intensity peaks of the semiconductor material specimen by scanning and rotating the semiconductor material specimen.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
utilizing the X-ray diffraction (XRD) process to measure a magnitude of at least one twin defect intensity peak of the semiconductor material specimen that includes measuring a plurality of twin defect intensity peaks of the semiconductor material specimen with a plurality of fixed detectors disposed at predefined angles relative to the semiconductor material specimen.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the semiconductor material specimen comprises a GaAs wafer.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the semiconductor material specimen comprises a silicon wafer.

11. The method of claim 1 , further including:
determining an actual density of sigma=3/{111} defects utilizing a proportional coefficient.

12. A method of mapping sigma=3/{111} twin defects of a specimen comprising (100) semiconductor material utilizing an X-ray diffraction (XRD) process, the method comprising:
determining a first tilt angle at which a plurality of peak intensities occurs due to sigma=3/{111} twin defects in a (100) semiconductor material of the specimen;
aligning a detector angle and a sample angle with the first title angle and an in-plane angle of a selected intensity peak of sigma=3/{111} defects;
moving the specimen in a first plane relative to a detector while measuring the intensity of a diffracted x-ray beam corresponding to a density of sigma=3/{111} twin defects utilizing the detector to provide sigma=3/{111} intensity data for a plurality of pairs of coordinates in the first plane; and
forming a map showing sigma=3/{111} twin defect intensity at a plurality of pairs of coordinates in the first place.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein:
the first tilt angle is about 48.2°.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein:
the first plane comprises an X-Y plane, and moving the specimen in the first plane relative to the detector comprises moving the specimen in the X-Y plane.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein:
the map comprises a plurality of colors corresponding to a plurality of measured sigma=3/{111} twin defect densities.

16. A method of using X-ray diffraction (XRD) to characterize sigma=3/{111} twin defects in a semiconductor (100) specimen, the method comprising:
utilizing an X-ray diffraction (XRD) process to measure magnitudes of a plurality of intensity peaks of a diffracted beam corresponding to sigma=3/{111} twin defects at a first vertical tilt angle between a [004] direction of an original single crystal of a semiconductor (100) defect of the semiconductor (100) specimen at a plurality of in-plane rotation angles;
comparing the magnitude of at least one intensity peak corresponding to sigma=3/{111} twin defects to the magnitude of an intensity peak of a diffracted beam corresponding to the [004] direction of an original single crystal of the semiconductor (100) specimen.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein:
the semiconductor (100) specimen comprises GaAs.

18. The method of claim 16 , further including:
dividing the magnitude of at least one sigma=3/{111} intensity peak by the magnitude of the intensity peak at the [004] direction.

Assignees

• Nasa
• Nasa

Inventors

• Park Yeonjoon
• Kim Hyun Jung
• Skuza Jonathan R
• Lee Kunik
• King Glen C
• Choi Sang Hyouk

Classifications

• G01N2223/6462

  microdefects · CPC title

• G01N2223/646

  flaws, defects · CPC title

• G01N2223/6116

  semiconductor wafer · CPC title

• G01N2223/0566

  analysing diffraction pattern · CPC title

• G01N23/20

  by using diffraction of the radiation by the materials, e.g. for investigating crystal structure; by using scattering of the radiation by the materials, e.g. for investigating non-crystalline materials; by using reflection of the radiation by the materials · CPC title