Dopant Activation Control Using a Soak Pulse in Flash Lamp Annealing

Flash Lamp Annealing (FLA) is a well-known process for activation annealing in ultra-shallow junctions. Since our FLA tool has a flexible flash function that allows adjustments of the order of milliseconds, it is possible to realize precise diffusion control in the nanometer range. With soak pulse FLA the junction depth (Xj) can be easily controlled by the soak pulse time while achieving a high activation level. In particular, this controllability is 1.0nm per 1.0ms, and the same Xj can be obtained for both boron and phosphorous dopants. Additionally, the ramp-up rate is also adjustable. A pulse with a 40ms ramp-up enables defect recovery to a sufficiently deep region as well as recrystallization of the amorphous layer. These dopant activation control techniques are useful for device engineering and research. The excellent features of our FLA tool give it great potential for use in several applications.