High Temperature Oxygen Out-Diffusion from the Interfacial SiOx Bond Layer in Direct Silicon Bonded (DSB) Substrates

Out-diffusion of the interfacial SiO_x layers is clearly achievable using high temperature annealing in H₂ ambient at about 1200degC. Other non-oxidizing ambient should perform equally well; provided that the surface remains free of oxide and oxygen getter sites during anneal treatment. Although both SIMS and XTEM were used to predict the out-diffusion flux and anneal time, it would appear that Cs+ SIMS out performs XTEM as a pre and post anneal metrology