Contribution of ICP-IDMS to the certification of antimony implanted in a silicon wafer – comparison with RBS and INAA results

Abstract

A thin-layer reference material for surface and near-surface analytical methods was produced and certified. The surface density of the implanted Sb layer was determined by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), and inductively coupled plasma isotope dilution mass spectrometry (ICP-IDMS) equipped with a multi-collector. The isotopic abundances of Sb (¹²¹Sb and ¹²³Sb) were determined by multi-collector ICP-MS and INAA. ICP-IDMS measurements are discussed in detail in this paper. All methods produced values traceable to the SI and are accompanied by a complete uncertainty budget. The homogeneity of the material was measured with RBS. From these measurements the standard uncertainty due to possible inhomogeneities was estimated to be less than 0.78% for fractions of the area increments down to 0.75 mm² in size. Excellent agreement between the results of the three different methods was found. For the surface density of implanted Sb atoms the unweighted mean value of the means of four data sets is 4.81×10¹⁶ cm^–2 with an expanded uncertainty (coverage factor k=2) of 0.09×10¹⁶ cm^–2. For the isotope amount ratio R (¹²¹Sb/¹²³Sb) the unweighted mean value of the means of two data sets is 1.435 with an expanded uncertainty (coverage factor k=2) of 0.006.