Boron impurity at the Si/SiO2 interface in SOI wafers and consequences for piezoresistive MEMS devices

Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2009

In this work, the electrical performance of piezoresistive devices fabricated on thinned SOI wafers has been investigated. Specifically, SOI wafers manufactured with the standard bond-and-etch back method (BESOI), commonly used for MEMS fabrication, have been studied. Results from electrical measurements and SIMS characterization show the presence of a boron impurity close to the buried oxide, even on unprocessed wafers. If the boron impurity overlaps with the piezoresistors on the device, it can create non-defined pn-junctions and thus allow conduction through the substrate, leading to stray connections and excessive noise. The thickness of the boron impurity can extend up to several μm, thus setting a thickness limit for the thinnest parts of a MEMS device. This work shows how this impurity can fundamentally affect the functionality of piezoresistive devices. Design rules of how to avoid this are presented