J. Holleman

Diffusion and electrical properties of Boron and Arsenic doped poly-Si and poly-

In this paper the texture, morphology, diffusion and electrical (de‐) activation of dopants in polycrystalline GexSi1-x and Si have been studied in detail. For gate doping B+,BF2+ and As+ were used and thermal budgets were chosen to be compatible with deep submicron CMOS processes. Diffusion of dopants is different for GeSi alloys, B diffuses significantly more slowly and As has a much faster diffusion in GeSi. For B doped samples both electrical activation and mobility are higher compared to poly‐Si. Also for the first time, BF2+ data of doped layers are presented, these show the same trend as the B doped samples but with an overall higher sheet resistance. For arsenic doping, activation and mobility are lower compared to poly‐Si, resulting in a higher sheet resistance. The dopant deactivation due to long low temperature steps after the final activation anneal is also found to be quite different. Boron‐doped GeSi samples show considerable reduced deactivation whereas arsenic shows a higher deactivation rate. The electrical properties are interpreted in terms of different grain size, quality and properties of the grain boundaries, defects, dopant clustering, and segregation, and the solid solubility of the dopants.

Ge_xSi_1-x(x~0.3)

A model is presented to calculate the step coverage of blanket tungsten low pressure chemical vapor deposition(W-LPCVD) from tungsten hexafluoride (WF6). The model can calculate tungsten growth in trenches and circular contactholes, in the case of the WF6 reduction by H2, SiH4, or both. The step coverage model predictions have been verified experimentallyby scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We found that the predictions of the step coverage model for the H2 reductionof WF6 are very accurate, if the partial pressures of the reactants at the inlet of the trench or contact hole areknown. To get these reactant inlet partial pressures, we used a reactor model which calculates the surface partial pressuresof all the reactants. These calculated surface partial pressures are used as input for our step coverage model. In this studywe showed that thermodiffusion plays a very important role in the actual surface partial pressure. In the case where SiH4was present in the gas mixture trends are predicted very well but the absolute values predicted by the step coveragemodel are too high. The partial pressure of HF, which is a by-product of the H2 reduction reaction, may be very high insidetrenches or contact holes, especially just before closing of the trench or contact hole. We found no influence of the calculatedHF partial pressure on the step coverage. Differences between step coverage in trenches and contact holes, as predictedby the step coverage model, were found to agree with the experiments. It is shown that the combination of the stepcoverage and reactor model is very useful in the optimization towards high step coverage, high throughput, and low WF6flow. We found a perfect step coverage (no void formation) in a 2 µm wide and 10 µm deep (2 × 10 µm) trench using anaverage WF6 flow of only 35 sccm, at a growth rate of 150 nm/min. In general, it is shown that the reduction of WF6 by SiH4offers no advantages over the reduction by H2 as far as step coverage is concerned.

as gate material for sub-0.25 µm complementary metal oxide semiconductor applications

Electroluminescence (EL) spectra of nanoscale diodes formed after gate-oxide breakdown of n+-polysilicon/oxide/p+-substrate metal–oxide–semiconductor capacitors were measured in reverse and forward bias. The nanoscale diodes, called diode antifuses, are created by the formation of a small link between the n+-poly and the p+-substrate with the properties of a diode. A previously published multimechanism model for avalanche emission from conventional silicon p–n junctions is applied to fit the EL spectra in reverse-biased silicon-diode antifuses. The results show that the light from reverse-biased diode antifuses is caused by the same phenomena as in conventional p–n junctions. Forward-bias spectra of the diode antifuses show different shapes when lightly or highly doped p substrates are used. In the case of a lightly doped p substrate, the EL intensity in the forward mode is increased by about two orders of magnitude in the visible-wavelength range with a maximum intensity in the infrared region. A phonon-assisted electron–hole recombination model is applied to fit the low-energy part of emitted spectra. The visible emission is attributed to the Fowler–Nordheim tunneling current through the SiO2, enabled presumably by electron capture into SiO2 trap levels and intraband transition of hot electrons injected into the Si bulk.

Modeling and Optimization of the Step Coverage of Tungsten LPCVD in Trenches and Contact Holes

Contemporary silicon light-emitting diodes in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology suffer from poor efficiency compared to their bulk-silicon counterparts. In this letter, we present a new device structure where the carrier injection takes place through silicon slabs of only a few nanometer thick. Its external quantum efficiency of 1.4middot10-4 at room temperature, with a spectrum peaking at 1130 nm, is almost two orders higher than reported thus far on SOI. The structure diminishes the dominant role of nonradiative recombination at the n+ and p+ contacts, by confining the injected carriers in an SOI peninsula. With this approach, a compact infrared light source can be fabricated using standard semiconductor processing steps

Modeling of light-emission spectra measured on silicon nanometer-scale diode antifuses

An atomic layer deposition process to grow tungsten nitride films was established at 350 degrees C with a pulse sequence of WF6/NH3/C2H4/SiH4/NH3. The film composition was determined with Rutherford backscattering as W1.5N, being a mixture of WN and W2N phases. The growth rate was similar to 1 x 10(15) W atom/cm(2) per cycle (monolayer of W2N or WN). The films with a thickness of 16 nm showed root-mean-square roughness as low as 0.43-0.76 nm. The resistivity of the films was stable after 50 cycles at a value of 480 mu Omega cm. Results of four-point probe sheet resistance measurements at elevated temperature demonstrated that our films are nonreactive with Cu at least up to 500 degrees C. Results of I-V measurements of p(+)/n diodes before and after heat-treatment in (N-2 + 5% H-2) ambient at 400 degrees C for 30 min confirmed excellent diffusion barrier properties of the films. (c) 2005 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.

Strong Efficiency Improvement of SOI-LEDs Through Carrier Confinement

Silicon nitride layers with very low hydrogen content (less than 1 atomic percent) were deposited at near room temperature, from N2 and SiH4, with a multipolar electron cyclotron resonance plasma. The influences of pressure and nitrogen flow rate on physical and electrical properties were studied in order to minimize the hydrogen and oxygen content in the layers. The optimized layers were characterized by a refractive index of 1.98, a dielectric constant of 7.2, and Si/N ratio values of 0.78. The layers exhibited very good dielectric strength, which was confirmed by large breakdown fields of 12 MV/cm, very high resistivities of 1016 Omega cm, and maximum charges to breakdown values of 90 C/cm2. Increasing the deposition pressure and decreasing the N2 flow improved the SiN/Si interface, due to increased oxygen incorporation. The dominant conduction mechanism in the layers was the Poole-Frenkel effect. The critical field and the trap energy had similar dependencies on deposition pressure. Fowler-Nordheim tunneling occurred at high gate biases, for the layers deposited at the highest pressure of about 22 mTorr

Atomic Layer Deposition of W1.5N Barrier Films for Cu Metallization Process and Characterization

In this work the low-temperature low pressure chemical vapour deposition (LPCVD) of W�Si�N compounds in the WF6�NF3�SiH4�Ar system is presented. Layers were deposited on oxidised Si-wafers at 385 and 250

Low Hydrogen Content Silicon Nitride Films Deposited at Room Temperature with an ECR Plasma Source

Studies on the initial growth or nucleation of materials and research on selective deposition often mention an incubation time. Many techniques exist to determine the incubation time. The outcome can be very different for each technique when the same nucleation process is considered. For the first time we have given a simple model which shows that several incubation times can be expected if different methods are used. One of the most popular methods, plotting the mass or thickness as a function of time and defining the incubation time as the intercept on the x-axis, is not a good method. In particular, a meaningful incubation time is found only if a layer-by-layer growth mechanism occurs right from the start. Ellipsometry can be used in situ and is a much more sensitive method, but this technique needs more research to correlate the nucleation process with the data obtained using this technique. The determination of the nucleus density using scanning electron microscopy or atomic force microscope is the most accurate method, yet needs a lot of experiments. Without a detailed description of the measurement method the incubation time is a meaningless quantity.

Growth and properties of LPCVD W—Si—N barrier layers

The deposition of silicon (Si) from silane (SiH4) was studied in the silane pressure range from 0.5 to 100 Pa (0.005 to1 mbar) and total pressure range from 10 to 1000 Pa using N2 or He as carrier gases. The two reaction paths, namely,heterogeneous and homogeneous decomposition could be separated by varying the amount of wafer area per unit volume(wafer-distance variation) and the SiH4 partial pressure as well as the total pressure. Rate constants were derived by fittingthe experimental results. The heterogeneous reaction path could be described by only the adsorption rate constants ofreactive species and the desorption rate constant of hydrogen using a Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism. Hydrogen andphosphine were found to suppress the deposition rate at low silane pressures. At high silane pressures or high totalpressures the unimolecular decomposition of silane dominates. The unimolecular rate constant was found to be one to twoorders larger than literature values based on RRKM analyses of high pressure rate data. The relative efficiency of SiH4-N2and SiH4-He collisions compared with SiH4-SiH4 collisions in the unimolecular gas-phase decomposition of SiH4 has beeninvestigated. Helium was found to be a weak collider compared to silane and nitrogen.

Incubation time measurements in thin-film deposition

This paper presents a novel approach to make high-performance CMOS at low temperatures. Fully functional devices are manufactured using back-end compatible substrate temperatures after the deposition of the amorphous-silicon starting material. The amorphous silicon is pretextured to control the location of grain boundaries. Green-laser annealing is employed for crystallization and dopant activation. A high activation level of As and B impurities is obtained. The main grain boundaries are found at predictable positions, allowing transistor definition away from these boundaries. The realized thin-film transistors (TFTs) exhibit high field-effect carrier mobilities of 405 cm2/Vmiddots (NMOS) and 128 cm2/Vmiddots (PMOS). CMOS inverters and fully functional 51-stage ring oscillators were fabricated in this process and characterized. The process can be employed for large-area TFT electronics as well as a functional stack layer in 3-D integration.