Oxidized porous silicon has drawn considerable interest as one of the alternatives for implementing silicon-on-insulator technology. Buried porous layers can be formed by utilizing the preferential pore formation in highly doped silicon during anodic etching in hydrofluoric acid. This porous silicon layer (PSL) can be subsequently oxidized rapidly at low temperatures to yield a device-quality silicon island layer, which is dielectrically isolated from the substrate. Although pores can be formed in both n-type and p-type silicon, the latter has received more attention. This paper presents the results of cross-sectional TEM (XTEM) observations of the microstructure of pores in n+ silicon.Samples used in this study were n- /n+/n- doped silicon (001) wafers which had been anodically etched in a hydrofluoric acid solution to form the PSL in the n+ layer via trenches etched through the n- surface layer.
Phosphorus diffusion gettering process of multicrystalline silicon using a sacrificial porous silicon layer