Simulation of boron, phosphorus, and arsenic diffusion in silicon based on an integrated diffusion model, and the anomalous phosphorus diffusion mechanism

Abstract

Boron (B), phosphorus (P), and arsenic (As) in-diffusion profiles were simulated based on an integrated diffusion model that takes into account the vacancy mechanism, the kick-out mechanism and the Frank–Turnbull mechanism. The simulations were done using just three parameters for B and P, and four parameters for As, each of which has a clear physical meaning and a physically reasonable value, with no additional ad hoc hypothesis. These parameters correspond to the diffusion of dopant species and of point defects that contribute to dopant diffusion. For the anomalous P diffusion profile, the vacancy mechanism governs the diffusion in the plateau region, while the kick-out mechanism governs it in the deeper region, where self-interstitials dominate in the kink region and P interstitials dominate in the tail region. This changeover from the vacancy contribution to the kick-out contribution is shown to be the mechanism for the appearance of the kink-and-tail profiles of P. Moreover, the comparison among B, P, and As diffusion is made to review the diffusion of these three dopants by means of a unified model.