Low temperature microwave annealing of S/D

Abstract

Microwave annealing of ion-implanted layers in semiconductors is an emerging application of thermal processing of semiconductors, with low processing temperature eliminating unwanted diffusion as the main potential advantage. In this work, requirements and limitations of the microwave processing chamber are discussed first, and secondly, for the first time, results from a processed manufacturing lot using microwave annealing are discussed. The achieved results show that is feasible to achieve the same level of activation of implanted layers as in conventional high temperature RTP processing using the microwave at temperatures below 400 °C, and equivalent processing time.