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Processes for the treatment of silicon wafers to form a high density non-uniform distribution of oxygen precipitate nuclei therein such that, upon being subjected to the heat treatment cycles of essentially any arbitrary electronic device manufacturing process, the wafers form oxygen precipitates in

Processes for the treatment of silicon wafers to form a high density non-uniform distribution of oxygen precipitate nuclei therein such that, upon being subjected to the heat treatment cycles of essentially any arbitrary electronic device manufacturing process, the wafers form oxygen precipitates in the bulk and a precipitate-free zone near the surface are disclosed. The processes involve activation of inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei by performing heat treatments between about 400° C. and about 600° C. for at least about 1 hour.

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1. A process for heat-treating a single crystal silicon wafer sliced from a single crystal silicon ingot grown by the Czochralski method to influence the precipitation behavior of oxygen in the wafer in a subsequent thermal processing step, the silicon wafer having a front surface, a back surface, a

1. A process for heat-treating a single crystal silicon wafer sliced from a single crystal silicon ingot grown by the Czochralski method to influence the precipitation behavior of oxygen in the wafer in a subsequent thermal processing step, the silicon wafer having a front surface, a back surface, a central plane between the front and back surfaces, a front surface layer which comprises the region of the wafer extending in the axial direction from the front surface toward the central plane to a distance, D, from the front surface, and a bulk layer which comprises the region of the wafer between the central plane and front surface layer, the process comprising: subjecting the wafer to a heat-treatment to install in the wafer a concentration of oxygen precipitate nuclei comprising crystal lattice vacancies in the front surface and bulk layers of the wafer, wherein at least a portion of the oxygen precipitate nuclei are inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei and a portion are active oxygen precipitate nuclei, the oxygen precipitate nuclei being characterized such that upon being subjected to an NEC1 oxygen precipitation heat treatment active oxygen precipitate nuclei are converted to oxygen precipitates and inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei do not form oxygen precipitates;controlling the cooling rate of the heat-treated wafer to produce a wafer having a concentration profile of oxygen precipitate nuclei wherein the maximum concentration is in the bulk region with the concentration generally decreasing in the direction of the front surface of the wafer and the difference in the concentration of oxygen precipitate nuclei in the front surface and bulk layers being such that, if the wafer is subjected to a subsequent oxygen precipitation heat treatment, an oxygen precipitate-free denuded zone is formed in the front surface layer and oxygen precipitates are formed in the bulk layer with the concentration of the oxygen precipitates in the bulk layer being primarily dependent upon the oxygen precipitate nuclei; andsubjecting the wafer to a heat treatment at a temperature of at least about 400° C. and no greater than about 600° C. for at least about 1 hour to activate at least a portion of the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei in the wafer. 2. The process as set forth in claim 1 wherein the heat treatment to activate at least a portion of the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei is at a temperature of at least about 500° C. 3. The process as set forth in claim 1 wherein the heat treatment to activate at least a portion of the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei is performed for at least about 2 hours. 4. The process as set forth in claim 1 wherein the heat treatment to activate at least a portion of the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei is at a temperature of from about 400° C. to about 450° C. and the treatment is performed for at least about 10 hours. 5. The process as set forth in claim 1 wherein the heat-treatment to install in the wafer a concentration of oxygen precipitate nuclei comprising crystal lattice vacancies in the front surface and bulk layers of the wafer is at a temperature of at least about 1100° C. 6. The process as set forth in claim 1 wherein the heat-treatment to install in the wafer a concentration of oxygen precipitate nuclei comprising crystal lattice vacancies in the front surface and bulk layers of the wafer is at a temperature of from about 1100° C. to about 1200° C. 7. The process as set forth in claim 5 wherein the heat-treatment to install in the wafer a concentration of oxygen precipitate nuclei comprising crystal lattice vacancies in the front surface and bulk layers is performed for about 1 second to about 60 seconds. 8. The process as set forth in claim 1 wherein the average cooling rate is at least about 5° C. per second. 9. The process as set forth in claim 1 wherein substantially all of the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei in the wafer are activated. 10. The process as set forth claim 1 wherein the wafer is cooled at a rate of about 50° C. per second or less and the wafer is capable of forming a density of oxygen precipitates of at least about 7.5×1010 cm−3 upon a NEC1 oxygen precipitation heat treatment. 11. The process as set forth in claim 1 comprising subjecting the wafer to an oxygen precipitation heat treatment step. 12. The process as set forth in claim 11 wherein the oxygen precipitation heat treatment is a process involved in electronic device manufacturing. 13. The process as set forth in claim 1 wherein the heat treatment to activate at least a portion of the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei is performed in an ambient selected from argon, helium, neon, carbon dioxide and mixtures thereof. 14. The process as set forth in claim 1 wherein D is at least about 10 μm. 15. A process for activating inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei, which comprise crystal lattice vacancies, in a wafer sliced from a single crystal silicon ingot grown by the Czochralski method and having a front surface, a back surface, a central plane between the front and back surfaces, a front surface layer which comprises the region of the wafer extending in the axial direction from the front surface toward the central plane to a distance, D, from the front surface, and a bulk layer which comprises the region of the wafer between the central plane and front surface layer, the wafer having a concentration of oxygen precipitate nuclei comprising crystal lattice vacancies in the front surface and bulk layers of the wafer, wherein at least a portion of the oxygen precipitate nuclei are inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei and a portion are active oxygen precipitate nuclei, the oxygen precipitate nuclei being characterized such that upon being subjected to an NEC1 oxygen precipitation heat treatment active oxygen precipitate nuclei are converted to oxygen precipitates and inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei do not form oxygen precipitates, wherein the concentration profile of the oxygen precipitate nuclei is characterized such that the maximum concentration is in the bulk region with the concentration generally decreasing in the direction of the front surface of the wafer, the process comprising: subjecting the wafer to a heat treatment at a temperature of at least about 400° C. and no greater than about 600° C. for at least about 1 hour to activate the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei such that they are capable of forming oxygen precipitates upon being subjected to an NEC1 oxygen precipitate heat treatment. 16. The process as set forth in claim 15 wherein the heat treatment to activate at least a portion of the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei is at a temperature of at least about 450° C. 17. The process as set forth in claim 15 wherein the heat treatment to activate at least a portion of the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei is performed for at least about 2 hours. 18. The process as set forth in claim 15 wherein the heat treatment to activate at least a portion of the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei is at a temperature of from about 400° C. to about 450° C. and the treatment is performed for at least about 10 hours. 19. The process as set forth in claim 15 wherein substantially all of the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei in the wafer are activated. 20. The process as set forth in claim 15 comprising subjecting the wafer to an oxygen precipitation heat treatment step. 21. The process as set forth in claim 20 wherein the oxygen precipitation heat treatment is a process involved in electronic device manufacturing. 22. The process as set forth in claim 15 wherein the heat treatment to activate at least a portion of the inactive oxygen precipitate nuclei is performed in an ambient selected from argon, helium, neon, carbon dioxide and mixtures thereof. 23. The process as set forth in claim 15 wherein D is at least about 20 μm.