Monitoring metal contamination of silicon by multiwavelength room temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy

Thin thermal oxide film (∼36 nm) was grown on p--Si (100) wafers in a vertical furnace at 950 °C for 90 min in 1 atm dry O2 as a vehicle for monitoring metal contamination. They are annealed in separate vertical furnaces at 1100°C for 120 min in N2 and tested for metal contamination using multiwavelength room temperature photoluminescence (RTPL), inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). Significant RTPL intensity and spectral variations, corresponding to the degree of metal contamination, were observed. Nondestructive wafer mapping and virtual depth profiling capabilities of RTPL is a very attractive metal contamination monitoring technique.