The Behavior of Ion Implanted Silicon During Ultra-High Temperature Annealing

Ultra-high temperature annealing is emerging as a promising technique for annealing ion implanted layers with a view to maximizing electrical activation while minimizing dopant diffusion. In order to ensure successful implementation, several materials-related problems have been under study. Since the time scale of the process is short, diffusion in the amorphous phase may dominate the final profile. In general, the residual disorder after anneal can be higher than with current anneal processes. However, the short time scale of the process curtails the opportunity for movement of dislocations into regions where the electrical behavior of a device would be affected. An additional effect of the limited time scale is the ability of silicon to plasto-elastically support the high strain-rates that may arise during the anneal.