Bending gettering of Si crystalline defects

Suppression of oxidation-induced stacking faults in a Si wafer, to which bending stress was applied during thermal oxidation, was investigated. Straight dislocations were formed only in the neutral plane of the wafer and were absent at the surfaces where bending stress is greatest. The dislocations were introduced by application of lower bending stress, for a wafer with a great amount of SiO₂ precipitates in bulk, and continued to function as sinks for oxidation-induced stacking fault nucleation sites, not only during the first oxidation but also through all subsequent high-temperature treatments. An origin of the dislocations was found based on the SiO₂ precipitates in Si bulk. Gettering through bending is described together with the dislocation formation mechanism.