Ramped nucleation of solid state phase changes

摘要

For faster processing of any solid-state phase change which is rate-limited by nucleation, the material temperature is steadily and gradually increased from a first temperature, where nucleation but not significant growth occurs, up to a second higher temperature, where rapid growth occurs. Since most of the nuclei survive to grow at the higher temperature, completed growth is far more rapidly attained than with prior art annealing processes, where a constant nucleation temperature and a constant (higher) growth temperature are used. In a sample embodiment, this is applied to oxygen precipitation in silicon.