Reduction of Dark Current in CMOS Image Sensor Pixels Using Hydrocarbon-Molecular-Ion-Implanted Double Epitaxial Si...

The impact of hydrocarbon-molecular (C₃H₆)-ion implantation in an epitaxial layer, which has low oxygen concentration, on the dark characteristics of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor pixels was investigated by dark current spectroscopy. It was demonstrated that white spot defects of CMOS image sensor pixels when using a double epitaxial silicon wafer with C₃H₆-ion implanted in the first epitaxial layer were 40% lower than that when using an epitaxial silicon wafer with C₃H₆-ion implanted in the Czochralski-grown silicon substrate. This considerable reduction in white spot defects on the C₃H₆-ion-implanted double epitaxial silicon wafer may be due to the high gettering capability for metallic contamination during the device fabrication process and the suppression effects of oxygen diffusion into the device active layer. In addition, the defects with low internal oxygen concentration were observed in the C₃H₆-ion-implanted region of the double epitaxial silicon wafer after the device fabrication process. We found that the formation of defects with low internal oxygen concentration is a phenomenon specific to the C₃H₆-ion-implanted double epitaxial wafer. This finding suggests that the oxygen concentration in the defects being low is a factor in the high gettering capability for metallic impurities, and those defects are considered to directly contribute to the reduction in white spot defects in CMOS image sensor pixels.