Method of producing a thin layer of semiconductor material

Claim 1

In a method of producing a thin layer of semiconductor material from a wafer of said material, wherein a semiconductor wafer having a flat face is subjected to ion implantation by bombarding said flat face with ions of a rare gas or hydrogen whereby to produce within the volume of said wafer and at a depth approximate to the penetration of the ions, a layer of microcavities separating the wafer into a lower region constituting the mass of the substrate and an upper region constituting the thin film, and the wafer is subjected to a thermal treatment, and the thin film upper region separated from the lower region substrate mass, the improvement wherein the ion implantation step is carried out with an ion dosage level sufficient to create microcavities to embrittle said wafer along a line of implantation, but below the dosage level sufficient to cause the wafer to separate during said thermal treatment, and, during or following said thermal treatment applying a mechanical force sufficient to separate said wafer along the line of implantation into a thin top layer and a lower layer comprising the remainder of the mass of the substrate.