High Performance 65nm SOI Transistors Using Laser Spike Annealing

In this paper we present enhancements in transistor performance and manufacturability of a high performance 65nm node SOI transistor by the combination of reduced RTA temperature and laser spike anneal (LTRTA+LSA) achieved through simultaneous optimization of offset spacer and extension/halo. DC NFET drive current is increased by 10% to a value of 1120 muA/mum (1220muA/mum if 9% NFET SOI self-heating effect included) at 200nA/mum off-state current and V
_DD
of 1.0V. PMOS drive current is enhanced by 5% to a value of 575muA/mum (60OmuA/mum if 5% PFET SOI self-heating effect included) which is less than enhancement observed in the NFET due to the differing amount of enhancement of capacitive inversion thickness (T
_INV
) at short channel. With respect to circuit and product performance, this device provides a 5% delay improvement for a product-like ring-oscillator (RO) and results in an improved cross-die statistical distribution of RO delay time. The minimum stable SRAM operating voltage (Vmin) is also significantly improved, indicating that control of the overlap capacitance (C
_ov
) may play a significant role in determining SRAM Vmin. For the first time, we report that the NFET Tinv reduction by LSA is substantially larger at shorter channel lengths which explains the large NFET drive current enhancements obtained by LSA