Ion implantation is one of the most critical processes in the front‐end‐of‐the‐line for ULSI technology. In the device defining process, a polysilicon gate is formed between the source and the drain of the transistors. After the poly gate formation, the silicon wafers are exposed to high dose implants such as source/drain and extension implants. These are usually done by batch implanters which host the wafers on a large wheel that spins at high RPM in vacuum during processing. Although some are worse than others, such implanters are known to generate particles leading to the damage of the poly gate. For instance, the high‐speed spin of the wafer wheel (1200 RPM) may provide strong enough force so that the impact of a small particle can be detrimental to a poly line structure. This destruction of the gate is classified as a missing‐poly defect. This work shows that implanter defectivity increases with the increase of wheel spin speed. Several other factors may also contribute to the missing poly issue, which includes wafer handling, damage from the plasma flood neutralization device and arcing from ion beam focusing elements near the wafer plane. This work presents the results of a systematic approach to characterize the defects in subsequent high dose implants. The defects are inspected on a KLA 2138 patterned wafer inspection tool, and the results are stored online for future references. The wafers are then placed on a JEOL 9855S SEM system so that the compositions of killer defects are examined by moving the probe to the exact location of defects. The combination of metrology tools enables us to determine how much defectivity is added to the product wafer and composition of the defects. From this we are able to categorize the defects and trace them to the originating sources based on the defect location and the composition. The data shows that the high‐speed spin of the wafer disc substantially increases the destruction of poly due to particles. Other effects of secondary importance, and the implanter effects on particle generation are also included in the paper. Possible preventative measures are discussed to eliminate or reduce this detrimental defect. © 2003 American Institute of Physics