Impact of Research on Defects in Silicon on the Microelectronic Industry

Abstract

30 years of academic research on defects in silicon is reviewed with respect to its impact on the microelectronic industry. Special emphasis is put on our current understanding of transition metal impurities, dopant impurities and intrinsic defects in silicon. It is demonstrated that only the dynamic interaction of academic research and microelectronic industry was able to achieve the current level of understanding on defects in silicon by rapid exchange and application of results. A typical pattern is the first identification of defects by their impact on device characteristics followed by improvement of fast detection methods and then full identification by methods with atomic resolution which — without such information — would probably have missed the defect because of its low concentration in silicon.