Nature of Surface and Bulk Defects Induced by Epitaxial Growth in Epitaxial Layer Transfer Wafers

Surface defects and bulk defects on SOI wafers are studied. Two new metrologies have been proposed to characterize surface and bulk defects in epitaxial layer transfer (ELTRAN) wafers. They included the following: i) laser scattering particle counter and coordinated atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Cu-decoration for defect isolation and ii) cross-sectional transmission electron microscope (TEM) foil preparation using focused ion beam (FIB) and TEM investigation for defect morphology observation. The size of defect is 7.29 urn by AFM analysis, the density of defect is 0.36 /cm$^2$ at as-direct surface oxide defect (DSOD), 2.52 /cm$^2$ at ox-DSOD. A hole was formed locally without either the silicon or the buried oxide layer (Square Defect) in surface defect. Most of surface defects in ELTRAN wafers originate from particle on the porous silicon.