AbstractThe use of high dose carbon ion implantation in Si for the production of ultrathin membranes is investigated. Carbon implantations with doses up to 1018 cm-8 and energies up to 300 keV, at room temperature and 500°C were used, followed by 10 hours annealing at 1150°C. Structural and chemical analysis has been performed (including TEM, XPS, Raman and IR spectroscopies), and the etch properties have been investigated for KOH and TMAH etchants. It is found that doses higher than 1017 cm-2 are needed to obtain efficient etch-stop layers in TMAH, independently of the annealing conditions, while in contrast with previous work, it was not possible to obtain satisfactory results using KOH. According to this, ultrathin crystalline membranes (below 500 nm thick) with average surface roughness as low as 4.8 nm, measured by AFM, were obtained, and the structural analysis revealed the formation of a highly stable buried layer of crystalline β-SiC precipitates aligned with the Si matrix. These results corroborate the ability of high dose C ion implantation to obtain buried layers usable for micomachining applications.
