Thermodynamic Regularities of Nuclei Growth during Crystallization of Metastable Alloys

The process of crystal growth in a metastable multicomponent melt has a high speed of the solidification front, which captures atoms of some other components. As a result of such a growth, at the surface of the growing crystal the effect of “impurity capture” is observed, and the concentrations of components significantly deviate from the local equilibrium. Under such conditions, the conventional physico-chemical methods for description of processes at the interfacial surface become inapplicable. Therefore, a new variational approach was applied for an integrated description of diffusion and thermal processes at the phase interface. The growth rate of crystal nucleus in a metastable melt was obtained, using the methods of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The developed approach allows estimation of the degree of metastable effects influence on a crystal growth rate.

Contact Resistance Improvement for Advanced Logic by Integration of Epi, Implant and Anneal Innovations

ABSTRACTAs advanced CMOS scaling with FinFETs continues beyond the 10/7nm nodes, contact resistance (Rc) remains a dominant component affecting device performance. The FinFET Source/Drain (S/D) contact area has become smaller with fin pitch scaling, resulting in drastically increased Rc. To achieve higher drive currents and fully realize the performance gain from FinFET architectural changes, it is critical to continue to reduce contact resistivity (ρc) < 1.0x10-9 Ω.cm2 for both NMOS and PMOS. In this paper, we review the recent trends for ρc reduction for advanced CMOS devices and discuss approaches that have demonstrated reduction in ρc, such as in-situ heavily doped epitaxial films for S/D, advanced ion implantation and laser anneals. The implant techniques include pre-amorphization implants (PAI), dopant boosting implants, cryogenic (-100°C) implants for damage engineering and plasma doping (PLAD) for conformal doping of high aspect ratio (HAR) contacts. With such high levels of doping from epi and implants, advanced laser anneals are key for epitaxial regrowth and formation of metastable alloys for dopant supersaturation or segregation in top layers. Millisecond laser anneal (MSA) improves dopant activation and nanosecond laser anneal (NLA) permits superactivation, and both have become key enablers for ρc reduction. This paper also reviews two alternative contact approaches: dual silicide scheme and wrap-around contact (WAC), as potential pathways to further reduce Rc for advanced CMOS nodes.