View article

Hydrogen ion-implantation into Si and subsequent heat treatment has been shown to be an effective means of cleaving thin layer of Si from its parent wafer. This process has been called Smart Cut^TM or ion-cut. We investigated the cleavage process in H-implanted silicon samples, in which the ion-cut was provoked thermally and mechanically, respectively. A 〈100〉 oriented p-type silicon wafer was irradiated at room temperature with 100 keV H₂⁺-ions to a dose of 5×10¹⁶ H₂/cm² and subsequently joined to a handle wafer. Ion-cutting was achieved by two different methods: (1) thermally by annealing to 350 °C and (2) mechanically by insertion of a razor blade sidewise into the bonded wafers near the bond interface. The H-concentration and the crystal damage depth profiles before and after the ion-cut were investigated through the combined use of elastic recoil detection analysis and Rutherford backscattering …