The diffusion of B implanted in Si has been investigated at different concentrations in a wide range of experimental conditions (temperature from 800 to 1000 °C and time from 10 s to 8 h) by using furnace and rapid thermal treatments. In particular, the transient enhanced diffusion induced by the implantation damage in the early phase of the annealing and the precipitation occurring in concomitance with the diffusion for dopant concentration exceeding the solid solubility have been extensively analyzed. A simulation program taking these phenomena into account has been developed by modifying the supreme iii code. A satisfactory agreement with experimental data has been obtained for all the investigated conditions. The model represents a significative improvement of the diffusion simulation of B implanted in crystalline Si. In fact, the more commonly used codes of process simulation do not evaluate adequately the effects of the above considered phenomena.

An extensive investigation on the diffusion of boron implanted at high concentration in preamorphized silicon has been carried out for rapid thermal annealing and conventional furnace annealing. The rapid process of epitaxial regrowth of the amorphous layer brings B atoms into substitutional positions, and thus electrically active, up to a concentration threshold of about 3.5×10²⁰ cm⁻³. This value is nearly independent of the annealing temperature and of the implanted dose. Since the concentration of dopant in solution is higher than the solubility value, precipitation phenomena occur in concomitance to diffusion during the annealing. The kinetics of precipitation has been investigated at 800, 900, and 1000 °C with isothermal treatments ranging between 10 s and 171 h. A simulation program taking into account precipitation phenomena has been developed modifying the suprem i i i code. The density of nuclei of the new phase has been evaluated on the base of the models of classic nucleation theory, while the rate of precipitation growth has been determined following Ham’s theory. Excellent agreement with experimental data has been obtained in a wide range of experimental conditions. The model represents a significative improvement of the simulation of high‐concentration B diffusion in Si; the more commonly used process simulations are inadequate to correctly foresee the dopant redistribution in supersaturated conditions.

Autosomal dominant osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) caused by glycine substitutions in type I collagen is a paradigmatic disorder for stem cell therapy. Bone marrow transplantation in OI children has produced a low engraftment rate, but surprisingly encouraging symptomatic improvements. In utero transplantation (IUT) may hold even more promise. However, systematic studies of both methods have so far been limited to a recessive mouse model. In this study, we evaluated intrauterine transplantation of adult bone marrow into heterozygous BrtlIV mice. Brtl is a knockin mouse with a classical glycine substitution in type I collagen [α1(I)-Gly349Cys], dominant trait transmission, and a phenotype resembling moderately severe and lethal OI. Adult bone marrow donor cells from enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) transgenic mice engrafted in hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic tissues differentiated to trabecular and cortical bone cells and synthesized up to 20% of all type I collagen in the host bone. The transplantation eliminated the perinatal lethality of heterozygous BrtlIV mice. At 2 months of age, femora of treated Brtl mice had significant improvement in geometric parameters (P < .05) versus untreated Brtl mice, and their mechanical properties attained wild-type values. Our results suggest that the engrafted cells form bone with higher efficiency than the endogenous cells, supporting IUT as a promising approach for the treatment of genetic bone diseases.