Ultra-thin-base Si bipolar transistor using rapid vapor-phase direct doping (RVD)

A novel doping method called rapid vapor-phase direct doping (RVD) is developed to form ultra-shallow junctions. The base region of a conventional bipolar transistor is formed by this method, and in ultra-narrow 25-nm base is obtained. The Gummel plot of this device shows almost ideal characteristics. This result suggests that this method does not induce any defects which cause a leakage current. RVD is a thermal diffusion method using hydrogen as a carrier gas and B₂ H₆ as a source gas. In this method, the impurity atoms directly diffuse from the vapor phase into silicon by a rapid thermal process without a boron-glass layer or metallic boron layer. By varying the source gas flow rate, doping time, and temperature, ultra-shallow junctions below 40 nm with controlled surface concentrations are successfully formed. An ultra-shallow 20-nm junction with surface boron concentration of 4×10¹⁸ cm^-3 is obtained at 800°C for 5 min with B₂H₆ flow rate of 30 ml/min