Oxygen measurements in thin ribbon silicon

The oxygen content of thin silicon ribbons grown by the dendritic web technique was measured using a modification of the ASTM method based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Web silicon was found to have a high oxygen content, ranging from 13 to 19 ppma, calculated from the absorption peak associated with interstitial oxygen and using the new ASTM conversion coefficient. The oxygen concentration changed by about 10% along the growth direction of the ribbon. In some samples, a shoulder was detected on the absorption peak. A similar shoulder in Czochralski grown material has been variously interpreted in the literature as due to a complex of silicon, oxygen, and vacancies, or to a phase of SiO ₂ developed along dislocations in the material. In the case of web silicon, it is not clear which is the correct interpretation.