Characterization of dopant activation, mobility and diffusion in advanced millisecond laser spike annealing

Recently we reported the development of new dual beam laser spike annealing system that offers flexible temperature profiles and a broad range of process parameters. For example, the dwell time can be varied from a few hundred microseconds to several tens of milliseconds, while simultaneously allowing the substrate temperature to be lowered significantly to accommodate silicide processes. Short anneal times are generally required to achieve the best R_S-X_j for junction scaling and reduction of strain relaxation, while longer anneal times provide for controlled impurity diffusion and the potentially enhanced defect annealing. In this paper, we present data from a systematic study of the role of dwell and peak temperature on annealing properties of electrically active impurities. Carrier activation and mobility data were obtained by Hall measurements and dopant profiles from SIMS. Thermal activation energies are extracted from these data covering temperatures in the 1100-1300°C range and over dwell times of 0.4ms to 20 ms.