Stress Analysis and Junction Leakage of Sub-Melt Laser Annealed SiGe Epitaxial Layers

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the different post-epi process steps on the stress behavior of epitaxially grown Si_1-x-Ge_x layers on Si substrates and the subsequent defectivity and device leakage. Stress measurements were performed by the in-line monitoring laser reflectance method to further investigate the intrinsic film stress dependence on the ion implantation conditions (atom size, depth of the implant, and dose) and the laser scan energy beam conditions during dopant activation (temperature, dwell time, and power). Moreover, the role of the millisecond laser anneal conditions on the area leakage current of embedded SiGe source/drain junctions is discussed. The analysis is complemented with structural characterization based on Nomarski microscopy.