| Because of its reproducibility, accurate dose control, and the ability to tailor dopant profiles, ion implantation has been used for years by the semiconductor industry to introduce dopant atoms into the silicon substrate. Damage to the silicon substrate from ion implantation is unavoidable, and annealing is required to repair the damage. Upon annealing, dislocation loop and {lcub}311{rcub} defects are formed in the vicinity of ion implanted region. These defects may degrade or even cause complete failure of devices.; Meanwhile, the semiconductor industry continues to scale successive generations of integrated circuits to increase packing density and reduce device dimensions. Unfortunately, these trends lead to increased stress levels in the silicon substrate. When combined with ion implantation damage, high stress influences defect formation and evolution.; To design better devices through predictive simulations, the magnitude, depth, temperature and time dependence of ion implantation-induced defects should be modeled correctly.; We developed statistical-point defect-based model for the evolution and nucleation of dislocation loops in silicon-implanted silicon. The model assumes that all of the dislocation loops evolve from unfaulting {lcub}311{rcub} defects. The model correctly predicts three distinctive stages of dislocation loop evolution (i.e. nucleation, growth, Ostwald repining) during annealing and is in agreement with the TEM data. We also tested the model for different implant species such as boron, germanium and arsenic. The model worked well for most of the implant and annealing conditions. The discrepancies between the model and the experimental results were highlighted where they occurred. We used the statistical nature of the model to determine threading dislocation loop densities by comparing average loop radius to loop depth.; Finally, we studied the mechanical stress effects on dislocation loops. Stress in the silicon substrate is varied by changing the deposited nitride stripe widths. The loop model was expanded to account for stress effects. We confirmed that dislocation loops are smaller and sparser in regions of compression when compared to the ones in the regions of tension. |
