ABSTRACTWe report a systematic study of dopant diffusion behavior for thin gate oxides and polysilicon implanted gate structures. Boron behavior is emphasized and its behavior is compared to that of As+ and BF2+. Dopant activation is achieved by rapid thermal annealing. Test structures with 100 Å, 60 Å and 30 Å gate oxides and ion implanted polysilicon gate electrodes were fabricated and characterized after annealing by SIMS, SEM, TEM, and C-V rpeasurements. For arsenic implanted structures, no dopant diffusion through a gate oxide of 30 Å thickness and an annealing condition as high as 1 100*C/1Os was observed. For boron implanted structures, as indicated by SIMS depth profiling, structures annealed at 1000*C/10s exhibit a so-called critical condition for boron diffusion through a 30 Å gate oxide. Boron dopant penetration is clearly observed for 60 Å gate oxides at an annealing condition of 1050 0C/10s. The flatband voltage shift can be as high as 0.56 volts as indicated by C-V measurements for boron penetrated gate oxides. However, 100 Å gate oxides are good diffusion barriers for boron at an annealing condition of 1100°C/10s. For BF2 implanted structures, the diffusion behavior is consistent with behavior reported in the literature.