Physical and Electrical Properties of Thin Doped Silicon Films Obtained by Low Temperature Smart Cut and Solid Phase Epitaxy

Physical and electrical characterization of thin doped silicon films is performed at different stage of low temperature layer transfer process. Spreading Resistance Profiling (SRP), Hall effect combined with Van der Pauw technique and standard 1(V) measurements of p-n junctions are performed. Dopant deactivation above 95% is observed after hydrogen implantation and annealing at 500 degrees C is not enough to recover the initial doping level. A new and more effective process sequence, based on silicon amorphization and Solid Phase Epitaxy (SPE) at low temperatures, is applied after the layer transfer. Using this new process, the dopant activation of the transferred thin silicon film is completely recovered and the p-n diode forward current is improved by about 2 decades. (C) 2013 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.