Abstract
Segregation characteristics of impurities to deliberately introduced crystal defects in Si has been well utilized against an unexpected contamination during IC device fabrication processes. Present paper shows the experimental results of direct observation of impurity gettering for various metal species under oxidizing ambient. These results were mostly obtained by using the secondary ion mass spectrometer and the analytical electron microscopy. Such elements as Fe, Cr, In, Mo, Ta and Al which have the strong affinity with oxygen were almost immobile and remained at the wafer surface. On the other hand, such elements as Cu, Au and Ni with the relatively weak affinity with oxygen could diffuse to the defective region away from the electrical active surface.
