On the simulation of the formation and dissolution of silicon self-interstitial clusters and the corresponding inverse modeling problem

The formation and dissolution of silicon self-interstitial clusters is linked to the phenomenon of transient-enhanced diffusion (TED) which in turn has gained importance in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. Based on theoretical considerations and measurements of the number of self-interstitial clusters during a thermal step, a model for the formation and dissolution of self-interstitial clusters is presented including the adjusted model parameters for two different technologies (i.e. material parameter sets). In order to automate the inverse modeling part, a general optimization framework was used. In addition to solving this problem, the same setup can solve a wide range of inverse modeling problems occurring in the domain of process simulation. Finally, the results are discussed and compared with a previous model.